Move to close down century-old school
By Majeed Gill
HUNDREDS of students, their parents and teachers have protested against the decision of the education department to close down a century-old high school in the name of merger with another institution.
According to facts, during the period of the former Bahawalpur state, in pursuance of the desire of its rulers, their education minister namely Crafton laid the foundation stone of a primary school for the students of the old walled city.
This school was opened within the Waqf building of a mosque known as Fardous Masjid on Zanana Hospital Road. An educationist, the late Hafiz Ghulam Mohammad, taught primary classes for years. After some time, the school was upgraded to middle standard under the name of Rafique Middle School where special emphasis was laid on religious teaching.
After integration, the school’s administrative control was handed over to the defunct municipal committee, Bahawalpur, which upgraded it to high standard. The school building was extended and nine classrooms were added on the land which was part of Waqf property of an adjacent mosque.
In the same manner, the number of teachers was increased in accordance with the strength of students. The outgoing students of this school served a number of high posts in the country. With the introduction of the devolution plan, the school was taken over by the district education department.
Now, the department without any reason has decided to close the school although it is showing encouraging results even in the board’s examinations. It has taken the stand that the school will be merged into Sadiq Dane High School, which is located outside Farid Gate and is about to complete its 100 years of existence. The Sadiq School is already facing a number of problems like shortage of staff, furniture, laboratories and classrooms.
Local circles have reacted to this decision and demanded the chief minister that the decision of the education department is a negation of his programme — Para Likha Punjab — which wants to increase educational institutions and not curtail their number. They urge him to ask the department to withdraw its decision, which is not in the larger interest of the public.c.
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THE local population has expressed concern over the decision of the city tehsil TMO to sack hundreds of temporary employees of the sanitation section owing to which the citizens are facing problems.
These employees were recruited last year to meet the staff shortage. The employees included sewermen, sweepers and other class four employees, including gardeners. They were paid on a daily wage basis. The tehsil city council has 21 union councils, and these employees are performing duties in each of the union council, providing relief to the residents in respect of sanitation. But the TMA objected that they should have CNICs of Bahawalpur city as the Bahawalpur tehsil stood bifurcated into two, i.e. city and Sadar tehsils.
The affected citizens feel that the TMA should have made alternative arrangements for sanitation, and then these temporary employees should have been relieved of their responsibilities. The district and tehsil nazims should take note of termination of temporary employees owing to which the sanitation conditions have deteriorated, and there is no hope of any early improvement as no steps have been taken by the TMA. It is feared that if new sanitation staff is not recruited immediately, the citizens will face numerous problems.
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MMA deputy parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar has accused the ruling coalition of violating merit in the recent recruitments in scales No 1 to 4 in the federal and provincial government departments.
Protesting against the government’s favouritism, he said the violation of merit had, in fact, deprived the local applicants of their due share in government services. He said the injustice being meted out to the local population for the past years had compelled them to raise their voice for their due rights. He said it was an irony that the deserving applicants of this area had been ignored by those who were raising hollow slogans of merit. He said he would raise the issue in the Punjab Assembly.
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QUACKS are active in all urban and rural areas of the district with the blessings of the officials of the health department. In fact, they have opened death shops and their prescriptions include all sorts of medicines: allopathic, homeopathic and Unani.
According to reports, they do not hesitate to even provide medicines meant for the treatment of livestock. In addition, these quacks were also responsible for administering expired medicines and injections.
The public circles have attributed the situation to the apathy of health officials. These officials neither conduct raids nor take legal action against quacks. The Punjab government should take a serious note of this alarming situation and take action not only against the field staff but also against the authorities of the health department to improve the situation.
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OVER 50 officials, including lower grade employees of the Wildlife Protection Project, Bahawalpur, have not been paid their salary for the past two months.
Although the project has been extended for another year, the employees are forced to work without salary as the funds for the new year’s expenditure have not so far been released.
The delay in the release of funds has created numerous financial problems for the employees who have drawn the attention of the authorities towards their genuine demand.
