MULTAN, Nov 28: District Coordination Officer (DCO) Fazeel Asghar has expressed displeasure with the school heads for not using the Farogh-i-Taleem Fund to provide basic facilities at educational institutions.

Speaking at a meeting here on Friday, Mr Asghar directed all heads of government schools to submit their recommendations regarding basic facilities at their respective institutions within two days. He said it was regretful that school heads failed to use the fund.

The DCO ordered installation of water filtration plants at all schools, construction of new toilets, repair of furniture and buildings and improvement in sanitation. He said he would pay surprise visits to schools to have firsthand knowledge of the situation.

Executive District Officer for Education Mumtaz Husain Shah told the meeting that education was free at government schools, but Farogh-i-Taleem Fund was being collected from the students. He said every month one rupee was being collected from fourth and fifth class students, six rupees from sixth to eighth class students and seven rupees from ninth and tenth class students.

Shah said the main reason behind the collection of this fund was provision of basic facilities at schools, and added that the money was being deposited with the account of each school’s management committee. He said five schools had Rs600,000 to Rs1.3 million in their accounts, 12 schools Rs400,000 to Rs500,000, five schools Rs100,000 to Rs200,000 and 34 schools Rs100,000, but this money was not being used.

Separately, the DCO directed the district taskforce committee on agriculture to accelerate its campaign against the companies and dealers involved in the sale of spurious and adulterated pesticides.

Presiding over a meeting of the taskforce committee, the DCO ordered collection of samples of pesticides from the storehouses of pesticide companies and dealers’ shops and their test from laboratories.

He said cases should be registered against the dealers and companies involved in adulteration or sale of substandard pesticides. He said it was the responsibility of the companies to establish their own intelligence networks to check the dealers involved in the sale of spurious and adulterated pesticides.

EDO for Agriculture Zaffaryab Haidar told the DCO that 12 samples of 11 companies -Pacific Agro Chemicals, Kisan Aid Services, Dev Pond Pakistan Private Ltd, Warble Private Ltd, Tiger Agro International, Infam Chemicals, Talha Javed Enterprises, Ideal Agro Chemicals, UDL Private Ltd, Sutluj Agro Chemicals and Pan Star Private Ltd -were found substandard or adulterated last month.

The DCO ordered a stern action against these companies.

The DCO was informed that 48 samples of fertilisers were collected last month and four of these were found adulterated. He said eight dealers were found guilty of selling urea fertiliser at high prices.