SHILLONG, NOV 27: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Thursday said there is no “discrimination” on the selection process of the 117 odd schools to be covered under the $100 million Asian Development Bank (ADB) scheme to improve education and skills.
Countering the allegation made by the opposition, the chief minister told the assembly “The process of selection done so that it does not create any perception of discrimination as it does not help anybody because the scheme already has modalities in place for conducting the assessment on the schools.”
The opposition raise objection against the failure of the government to include schools from Garo hills in the first phase during the selection and identification of schools for the implementation of the scheme under the ADB.
NPP legislator James K Sangma said, “This second treatment is unacceptable”, when the deputy chief minister in charge education RC Laloo replied that the government has decided to have all schools from Garo hills region on the second phase.
Independent legislator Saleng Sangma said, “I don’t want the people of Garo hills to feel discriminated because of the process being adopted.”
Replying to this, the chief minister said that assessment process for selection of schools started in 2012 and initially the ADB started the process from East Khasi Hills, West Jaintia Hills and Ri Bhoi district. He said, “In the initial stage, we were being able to complete only 30 schools and decided to go ahead in view of the need to keep timeline as we are already late for the implementation.”
In addition, the deputy chief minister however said while all 30 identified schools are from Khasi and Jaintia Hills sector, the second phase which will include 87 schools, majority of them are from Garo hills region.
Leader of Opposition Donkupar Roy however suggested to the government that in order to avoid feeling of discrimination, the selection of schools should be done in constituency wise.
In reply to this, Laloo said, “That is what we are trying to do as far as practical. We will also try to cover all constituencies and blocks across the state.” According to him, the survey done by the ADB in 2012-13 is based on the schools which are badly in need of improvement.
Laloo also said, the $100 million funded by the ADB will include civil work, maintenance of schools, skill teacher training and others. In the capital city alone, a total of four out of 30 schools were identified.- By Our Reporter
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