FAISALABAD, April 25: Fate of 143 state-run schools of various levels is hanging in balance as the education department has been striving for years to get sanction of posts and approval of schedule of new expenditure (SNE) by the district government, Dawn has learnt on Tuesday.

Sources said that 91 school buildings had been completed prior to the present regime while work on the remaining ones had been initiated by the Punjab government which had earmarked millions of rupees under the Chief Minister Accelerated Program for Social Development (CMAPSD).

Under this project, it was decided that most of elementary schools in rural areas would be upgraded to high schools and the government would provide the required funds.

They said despite spending millions of rupees for the upgradation of a number of schools the education department had been striving its utmost to get SNE approval and funds to make these educational institutions functional.

Most of the school buildings, they said, had been completed while work on few of them had yet to be started despite the passage of a considerable period.

Besides the approval of SNE, they said another problem the education department had been facing was the creation of seats for 91 schools, whose buildings had been completed more than 10 years ago. Members of national and provincial assemblies had provided the budget from their quotas for this purpose.

They said the education department had also forwarded details of such schools in 2004 for immediate attention, but to no avail. The department had again submitted the details in this regard, they said.

When contacted, EDO (education) Mumtaz Shah said that the department had demanded Rs81.65 million and approval of SNE to make these schools functional in the current academic session.

He expressed his hope that the next district assembly session would take up the issue and approve the required budget to make these schools functional.

COMMITS SUICIDE: A married woman committed suicide by hanging herself with a ceiling fan over some domestic issue in Chak 56-JB on Wednesday.