Shivakumar unhappy over slow progress in construction of Karnataka Public Schools

Bengaluru: Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday expressed unhappiness over slow progress in the construction of Karnataka public schools in the state.

The Karnataka public schools is a dream project of Shivakumar to upgrade educational infrastructure in rural schools and provide high-quality education to students from rural areas.

All schools would be built with CSR funds from corporates , officials said. Taking a dig at the deputy commissioner's and zilla panchayat CEOs during a meeting to review the progress of Karnataka public schools in the state, he said, "CSR funds to the tune of Rs 8,000 crore is available in the state. We had given clear instructions two years ago that CSR funds of corporates must be used to build Karnataka public schools."

CSR for Karnataka public schools

"It has come to our notice that some of the corporations from the state are allocating CSR funds to some private NGOs in other states and taking back 50 per cent of that amount in cash. This is resulting in a loss for the state. It is our responsibility to use it for building the schools," he said in a statement.

In the meeting, Shivakumar said that the corporates need not give the government any funds, they can build a school and hand it over to the government. He also suggested that the government could even provide lands and building designs and corporates could have schools in their name.

"We are building 13 CSR Karnataka public schools in my constituency (Kanakapura Assembly constituency) and each of these schools cost anywhere between Rs 9 crore to Rs 12 crore. The work on Karnataka public schools is progressing well only in some regions, while there is negligence in other regions," he said.

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Action by DK Shivakumar

The deputy CM urged the district administration to write letters to corporates in their districts and arrange a meeting to discuss construction of the schools using their CSR funds. Meanwhile, the state government has appointed nodal officers to coordinate and expedite construction of CSR-funded Karnataka public schools.

According to an official statement, commissioner for industrial development, Gunjan Krishna, has been appointed as the coordinating officer and Karnataka state industrial infrastructure development corporation MD, Khushboo G Chowdhary, has been appointed as the CEO.

The two officers will work with various corporates to mobilise CSR funds for the Karnataka public schools, it said. The decision to appoint nodal officers was taken in view of the slow progress in setting up 2,000 Karnataka public schools in the state. The two officers will work to expedite the execution of this project, officials added.