FAISALABAD, April 26: Prof Anwarul Haq, the Faisalabad Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education chairman, has said the all-important project of constructing board’s building has been in the doldrums for the last well over 18 years.

Speaking at ‘Meet the Press’ programme here at the press club on Wednesday, he claimed that Faisalabad’s was the only board in the province which was set up in a rented building and running its day to day affairs in shabby conditions.

He said in 1988, the then BISE management acquired hundreds of acres on Jhang Road and planned to construct its own building in view of which architectural drawings were prepared by the officials, but all efforts ended up in smoke.

He said the site for the proposed building was not up to the mark and was purchased in a haphazard manner without even considering the influx of students from other sides of the region.

Now a comprehensive plan was being chalked out to establish the BISE offices on Millat Road for which a piece of 212 kanals had been selected, he said. The government departments, he said, were in contact for transfer of property rights as well as completion of feasibility report.

This mega project would be completed within next three years and Rs130 million had been allocated as an initial amount.

He said the BISE was taking various types of examinations of over 200,000 students annually and providing services from its own resources. No increase had been made in the fee for the students for the last 16 years, he said, as a result of which the institution was in deficit of over Rs10 million annually.

He claimed that the students and BISE staff had been facing innumerable problems for want of proper building, which could be judged from the fact that the (important) files containing examination record had been kept in the toilet blocks while one room was being shared by three to four officials and their subordinate staff.

BISE Secretary Dr Riaz Husain Shah said dozens of fresh policies had been adopted for the welfare of students and to provide them better examination atmosphere. The vacant seats of the institutions were also being filled through proper channel to overcome the shortage of staff.