SAHIWAL: Stakeholders have failed to settle down differences on the rates of 200 kanals for the construction of Sahiwal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education’s (BISE’s) building in Sahiwal division.

The stakeholders include the Higher Education Department, the Sahiwal BISE management, the Punjab Revenue Department and the Sahiwal district government.

The board officials say the lack of building is causing operational problems. Board’s operational departments are situated in three rented buildings located in a radius of five kilometres in the city.

BISE Chairman Dr Anwar Ahmed said the absence of board’s own building was not only affecting the efficiency of 400 board employees but also causing problems for both candidates and affiliated public and private educational institutions.

The board management is continuously demanding transfer of 200 state kanals to it on a subsidised rate.

BISE Secretary Shahid Pervaiz said the problem had been lingering on for the last three years.

The district government, in collaboration with the provincial Revenue Department, has allocated land on subsidised rates for the sub-campuses of the Bahauddin Zakariya and COMSATS universities.

The Sahiwal BISE was established in 2012 after the district was declared the 9th division of Punjab. At that time, the board was established in a building of one of the educational blocks of the Sahiwal Government Postgraduate College. The college does not charge any rent from the board. As the college building was insufficient, the board had to rent three more buildings in different locations for its day to day affairs.

Presently, board’s conduct, confidential printing press and the secretary office are operating in rented buildings.

“The board pays Rs175,000 rent every month for the buildings,” Pervaiz says.

Board’s annual intra-board sports competitions are also organised at rented grounds.

Presently, the board is dealing with 200,000 candidates and around 2,000 public and private educational institutions from Okara, Pakpattan and Sahiwal districts. Female candidates and their parents from far-flung areas face problems in traveling to four different buildings in a day.

“It’s the loss of time and money because board services are scattered in four different buildings,” Malik Arshad, of Arifwala, says.

He says he had to spend three days to get the migration certificate of his son. “It’s just a few hours file work if the board office was located at one place,” he said. “Automation, networking and internet connectivity of the board for online results and coordination among board wings for consolidation of results are one of the major problems being faced by board’s employees,” Mr Pervaiz says.

The board has also taken a hall of the Government Comprehensive High School to store the solved paper sheets of 200,000 candidates.

“Every year, we have to sell the old sheets to create a space for the next year’s solved papers,” he added.

Dawn learned from sources that to acquire 200 kanals, board’s higher management, the commissioner office, the DCO office, the revenue department and the Higher Education Department have been exchanging letters to settle down the land issue for the last three years.

The last communique was done by the commissioner office on Oct 28, 2015.

Sources close to the situation told Dawn 200 state kanals had been identified by the district government near the View Hotel at Lahore-Sahiwal bypass but still it has not been decided if the board, being an autonomous body, will buy it on commercial rates or subsidised rates.

Dr Anwar Ahmed said the board was an autonomous body “but it’s also a public service delivery body, so we must be provided state land on subsidised rates, and not on commercial rates”.

A sources close to the local revenue office informed Dawn the revenue department had already provided subsidised state 70 acres and 38 acres to the sub campuses of the Bahauddin Zakariya University and COMSATS University, respectively.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2015