Staff Correspondent,
Over a year after devastating floods, 284 government primary schools in six upazila of Feni district, which were damaged due to flood, still await repair work despite having an approved allocation of over Tk 12.99 crore.
With deadlines missed and procedures stalled, a staggering Tk 12.67 crore has been returned to the national coffer, leaving the authorities of 284 schools in disrepair and thousands of students in limbo.
The government had earlier allocated Tk 12,99,70,812 crore for the repair and renovation works for 314 government primary schools in six upazilas of the district.
But the authorities concerned carried out repair work on only 30 schools, spending Tk 31,73,334.
As the authorities failed to carry out the repair work in time, a total of Tk 12,67,97,478 was returned due to non-implementation of the planned repair work.
The upazila engineer expressed reluctance to carry out the repair work for not receiving any instruction from the Local Government Engineering Department.
The upazila engineer expressed reluctance to carry out the repair work for not receiving any instruction from the Local Government Engineering Department.
As a result, the allocated money was returned to the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE).
According to the DPE, Feni, after receiving the allocation on April 29, the renovation activities of 284 schools did not start in time, leading to the fund return.
Besides, 30 schools that received allocations of less than Tk 1, 50,000 have completed their repair work.
Due to the allocation of more than Tk 1.50 lakh, to 284 schools, the upazila primary education officer sent a letter to the upazila engineer to take necessary measures regarding the repair work.
As no instructions were received from the Local Government Engineering Department, the upazila engineer was unwilling to move ahead with the repair work.
As a result, the allocated funds for the 284 schools were returned to the Directorate of Primary Education.
The allocated amount could not be spent as the project’s designated period expired for failure to invite a tender in time.
There are 559 government primary schools in Feni. Of these, 151 in Sadar upazila which received Tk 5,02, 26,514 while only 5 schools were repaired, at a cost of Tk 5,62,159 and Tk 4,96,64,355 was returned.
