Aurangabad, Jan 11:
The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation has not received any schools building rent from the State Government since 2004. The outstanding amount of the grant with the State Government is Rs 83 crore.
It may be noted that the AMC has 71 schools in the city. Of them, 90 per cent of school buildings are owned by the Civic Body. The State Government gives rent to the AMC for using buildings for the schools.
AMC Administrator Astik Kumar Pandey started trying to make all the schools of their ‘Hi-Tech’ on getting this amount.
The AMC administration has not taken schools seriously in the last three decades. So, the number of students in Corporation schools which had 34,000 once, has now come down to 10,000. About Rs 400 to 500 crore is spent on development works in the city every year. But, even Rs 1 crore is not spent for maintenance and repair of schools buildings.
The government has stopped grants since 2004. The outstanding rent amount is Rs 83 crore with the government. The civic administration did correspondence on the Government level for the rent, but it did not get much success.
Administrator Pandey has sought Rs 30 crore from the Smart City project to make the AMC Hospitals and Health Center ‘Hi-Tech’ for the past few days.
According to sources, efforts were being made to give a new facelift to schools. “Suddenly, the issue of outstanding fund of Rs 83 lakh with the government came to light. After receiving this amount, a 100 per cent transformation of municipal schools will take place. Help from the Accounts Department is being taken to get the grant. Efforts would be made to get funds by pursing up the matter with the School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad,” sources said.
Many poor parents do not send their children to the AMC schools as they do not get quality education there. The administrator decided to make upgrade their schools on the line Delhi Government schools.