RAWALPINDI: Due to the failure of the Punjab government to devise working rules for the new District Education Authority (DEA), the reconstruction of dangerous school buildings in the district has been put on hold.

The provincial government released Rs600 million for the reconstruction of the 178 dangerous school buildings in the Rawalpindi district two months ago. However, work on the project could not be launched by the building department in January as planned after the revival of the deputy commissioner system.

A senior official of the education department told Dawn that due to the lack of working rules the authority faced confusion how to launch development works. Besides, the payment of salaries and allowances to the teaching and non-teaching staff may not be possible at the end of this month.

“Though a finance branch has been established in the authority, there are no clear directions about the functions of the branch. There is an ambiguity whether the district accounts department will deal with the salaries and allowances or the finance branch of the education authority.”

Teachers say Punjab govt’s failure to formulate working rules for new education authority has created confusion in the department

He said over 16,000 teachers were worried about their salaries and allowances.

Earlier, the accounts department under the supervision of the district coordination officer managed all such matters but the provincial government changed the local government system to the commissioner system.

“The provincial government enforced the education authority in haste without proper homework. Instead of setting up an interim management, the government changed everything with the issuance of a notification,” he said.

The official said more than 326 school buildings had been declared dangerous in the Rawalpindi district after cracks appeared in their structures.

The provincial government released Rs600 million for the reconstruction of 178 buildings and the work was supposed to be started in the current month.

However, he said, with the change of the local government system, the reconstruction of the buildings could not be launched and there were no directions from the provincial government whether the buildings would be reconstructed by the communication and works department or the education authority would hire contractors on its own.

Punjab Teachers Association District President Chaudhry Saghir Alam told Dawn that the salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff had been stopped.

He said when retired teachers submitted their papers to start the process for their cases, the accounts department refused to entertain them.

“The accounts department informed the teachers that the district accounts had been frozen by the Punjab government. It is not sure if the salaries would be released to the over 16,000 teachers and over 4,000 other staff next month or not.”

He said the Punjab government had taken a wrong decision to set up the education authority, adding the government was not interested in improving the condition of educational institutions.

When contacted, District Education Authority chief executive officer Qazi Zahoorul Haq admitted that work on the reconstruction of the school buildings had been stopped.

He said after devising rules for the education authority, the reconstruction work would be started soon.

“The government has released the funds but we are waiting for the rules on the execution of the project.”

In reply to a question, the official said the salaries and allowances had not been stopped and it was a wrong claim made by the teachers.

“All the teaching and non-teaching staff members were paid salaries for December on time and next month they would also get their pays as per the schedule,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2017