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First E-Panchayat in the country

The Hindu
Tuesday, March 29, 2005.

The Govt. would open Plus Two schools in all Panchayats where there are no such schools, the Education Minister, E. T. Mohammed basher, has said.

Replaying to the questions in the assembly on 28th March 2005, Mr. Basheer said priority would be for opening Govt. schools. Certain Govt. schools would be upgraded in the coming academic year. Availability of space, number of students, distance from the nearest schools and educational backwardness of the area would be the main criteria.

He said availability of building was not the sole condition for upgrading a school. No decision had been taken to close down the uneconomic school. While upgrading schools, priority would be given to the Malabar region. New courses had been sanctioned in 20 colleges. Those colleges that could not start the courses would begin them in the next academic year, Mr. Basheer said.

CBSE batches
He said the suggestion to start CBSE batches in schools that followed SSLC syllabus was impractical since it would cause administrative problems. The salary of Plus Two teachers and laboratory assistants had incurred an additional burden of Rs. 345 crores to the Govt. Application for starting unaided schools would not be rejected summarily, he said.

Computer training would be given to high school teachers under the IT@school programme. Out of the 53,430 high school teachers, training had been imparted to 34,187 teachers. The remaining teachers also would be trained, he sad.

The Minister said the procedure for issuing duplicate copies of SSLC book had been simplified. Those who had lost the book need not have to give a gazette notification. After advertising it in a newspaper, application for duplicate copy should be submitted along with copy of the advertisement. Direction had been given to the issue the duplicate copy with in 45 days, Mr. Basheer said.

Vocational Schools
The Minister said it had been decided to open 100 vocational higher secondary schools. The Govt. had sought the permission of the Central Govt. to start two additional batches each in 200 schools. A proposal to give assistance for professional education to the children of Plantation Relief Fund to the laborers children in plantations that remained closed, Mr. Basheer said in a written replay.

Farm loans
The cooperation Minister, M.V. Raghavan, said the one time settlement for agriculture loans would not be extended beyond March 31st 2005. If any bank passed a resolution to extend the facility, the Govt. would sanction a special recovery scheme. Out of the Rs. 400 crores sanctioned by NABARD for providing agriculture loans, Rs. 100 crores had been utilized. He said the interest rate for agriculture loans had been reduced to 8.5 per cent and it would not be reduced further, Mr. Raghavan said.

Incentives would be given to the farmers who promptly repaid the loan under the Agriculture Production Cost Relief Scheme. A sum of Rs. 8 crores had been set apart for computerizing the state Cooperative Bank head office and its branches and Rs. 1.39 crores had already been spent, he said.

The Revenue Minister, K. M. Mani, said resurvey had been completed in 2,4242.11 square kilometers. Resurvey in 703 villages had been completed and the remaining 771 villages would be taken up soon.