It’s parha likha Punjab!

While the Punjab government spends millions on the media campaign to promote its education reforms, the situation on the ground is unchanged when one visits state-run schools and colleges in small towns and rural areas of the district.

Most of the campuses face identical problems - shortage of staff, furniture, classrooms, library books and laboratory equipment, overcrowding and, above all, lack of academic discipline.

The Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Uch Sharif, is a perfect picture of these ills. It has been running without the principal and vice-principal for the last several months due to which the entire administrative set-up and academic activities are in disarray.

With hundreds of girls already on its roll, the school building is inadequate to cope with the increasing number of students. The school is facing the shortage of classrooms forcing teachers to convert several portions of the verandah to temporary classrooms.

Reports claim that roofs and walls of most of the classrooms are in dilapidated condition, which speaks volumes for the sheer negligence of officials of the department concerned. The school is also devoid of drinking water facility while its toilets are almost unusable.

According to a local human rights activist, the shortage of furniture forces scores of students to bring mats from their homes while a majority of them have to sit on the floor.

The lone science teacher has been on leave for the last one year. Consequently, most of the students fail to qualify the science subjects. Only those students get through the examination who can afford private tuition.

The Punjab government should take notice of needs and requirements of such school and should make provision for necessary funds to meet missing facilities there.

ENROACHMENTS in local bazaars is a longstanding issue which is still unresolved by the Tehsil Municipal Administration. Several measures were taken and massive operations were launched in past, but the problem could not be solved on a permanent basis.

In the first phase, a clean-up operation was carried out from Farid Gate to Gandi Gali, but the removal of encroachments could not be completed even in the second phase for which the people were eagerly awaiting. Recently, local residents had welcomed District Nazim Tariq Cheema’s statement at the induction ceremony of a group of the Markazi Anjuman-i-Tajran. The district nazim had said that there would be no compromise on the encroachment issue, but so far the task is incomplete and the people demand that the district government and the city TMA should take solid steps to remove all illegal extensions of shops, structures and unauthorised constructions from all bazaars and busy roads.

Both shopkeepers and the people, particularly women and their accompanying children, face a great deal of inconvenience during rush hours of shopping in the congested bazaars. This situation will further aggravate after 15th of Ramazan as the people will flock to bazaars for Eid shopping. Now local public circles are waiting to see as to how the issue is resolved by tehsil and district nazims to their entire satisfaction.

STAGE is set to take the work in hand on the first phase of the ADB-funded water supply and drainage project costing Rs1.5 billion in Bahawalpur city tehsil during the current month. This was informed during a briefing to Punjab Housing and Physical Planning Secretary Khalid Sultan, District Nazim Tariq Cheema and DCO Muhammad Ashraf here.

According to the details provided at the meeting, tenders for the water supply scheme in Satellite Town will be opened on Oct 10. The scheme will meet the longstanding water needs of the people in Satellite Town and its adjacent localities — Muslim Town, Sajid Awan Colony, Chah Muftiwala, Muhallah Sharif and Oad Colony.

The meeting was also informed that tehsil’s 18 kachi abadis would be provided potable water at a cost of Rs250 million under this project. The district nazim directed the TMA officials to undertake a study to install water meters for the recovery of arrears from residents.