JHANG, Jan 23: The education department has sanctioned a higher secondary school (HSS) in the village which already has the facility allegedly to oblige a government official.

Scores of people on Wednesday condemned the violation of rules by those at the helm of affairs.

Ignoring a number of villages without schools in Jhang district, they said the construction of the new building, hardly a kilometre from the old one, was almost completed with an expenditure of Rs10 million.

They said a senior accounts group grade 20 official, who hails from a tiny hamlet Kalyarwala of Rodu Sultan village, some 40km from here, sued his influence on the education department and Jhang district administration to get another higher secondary school sanctioned in the village.

The officials concerned, violating the department’s policy regarding the construction of more than one institute in the close vicinity, obliged the bureaucrat, they added.

The existing double-storey school in Rodu Sultan was constructed with an expenditure of millions of rupees. At present, there are 15 subject specialists in grade 17, some staff members and the principal in grade 19 are working over there. Around 600 students are on the rolls.

They maintained the construction of the school with an expenditure of Rs10 million in a deserted place was a waste of money with the least chances of attracting students.

When contacted, education Executive District Officer (EDO) Mrs Jamila Akhtar told this correspondent that the school was sanctioned in violation of the rules but she was not responsible for it as the feasibility report of the project was okayed by the former District Education Officer Mastan Ali Javed. The construction of the school was in the final stages, she claimed.