Rs 9,800 cr to be spent on education this fiscal year: Dy CM

The state government is spending Rs 9,800 crore on education during the current financial year, Rs 1,000 crore more than the previous year. Instead of increasing the number of schools, the government is concentrating on providing good quality education, said Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri here today.

He inaugurated Under-19 School State Sports Tournaments at Government School for Boys in the city. As many as 730 students from 11 districts of the state, barring Lahul and Spiti and five sports hostels in Nadaun, Paprola, Rohru, Sundernagar and Una, are participating in the four-day tournaments that will feature football, hockey, basketball and handball events.

He said that new schools would be opened where ever necessary and only those schools, which were registering zero admission, had been closed. He added that Rajiv Gandhi Day Boarding Schools would be set up in each Assembly segment and the government had given approval for opening 18 such schools in the first phase. Eight such schools were in the final stage of completion.

Agnihotri said that the government was providing 3 per cent reservation to sportspersons in government jobs. Besides, the award money given to players for winning medals at national and international levels had been enhanced, he added. “Nishad Kumar from Amb, who had won the silver medal at the recent Paralympic Games, was given a cash reward of Rs 3 crore,” he claimed.

Later, Agnihotri laid the foundation stone and inaugurated public works estimated at Rs 10.2 crore. He inaugurated the newly constructed office building of Senior Executive Officer of the State Electricity Board at Haroli and the new office building of the PWD Assistant Engineer at Tahliwal. He dedicated to the public a road bridge in Chandpur village. He laid the foundation stone of two bridges over the Swan river tributaries in Haroli and Chandpur.