Bhubaneswar, Mar 31: With the coming of summers, the lives of around 30 lakh school children have worsened as their schools are deprived from electricity. There are around 51,094 primary and upper primary schools of which 40,087 primary schools are not having current. Thus, 80% of primary and upper primary level schools run under Odisha government without electricity. Similarly, 935 government-run high schools run without having power connections. Mayurbhanj is the top listed district that has 3,346 schools not connected to power supply. Ganjam district comes in the second position which is the Odisha CM’s native place. It has 2,094 un-electrified schools. Keonjhar district has 2083 schools without electricity supply. In case of the high schools, Koraput district has the maximum number of tribal population accounts for maximum number of high schools, around 114, running without electricity. And the children enrolled in these schools go through the most difficult times in these summers. Even if the government goes ahead in electrifying these schools, funds to pay the pending electricity bills would be hell of a task. There is no distinct fiscal provision for the payment of electricity dues and so the schools authorities of maximum electrified schools find it tough to clear the dues. As a result, the school authorities are forced to take out Rs 5,000 from the annual school improvement grants to pay off the pending electricity bills as non-payment of bills leads to electricity supply disconnection by the supplying company.
Minister of schools and mass education, Debi Prasad Mishra admitted that the gross lack of electricity in government schools is spreading across the state, while replying to a question asked by BJD MLA Raseswari Panigrahi. He also said that Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan has been asked to lay stress on the electrification of government-run institutions from central funds.
