Chief Minister launches Viveka Scheme for building special classrooms in government schools in State

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai offering sweets to students on the occasion of Children’s Day after the launch of Viveka Scheme at Madihal Tanda in Kalaburagi district on Monday.
| Photo Credit: ARUN KULKARNI

Viveka Scheme, a State government programme for building special classrooms for government schools, was launched by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who laid foundation stone for a few such classrooms at Madihal Tanda, a Lambani hamlet, in Kalaburagi district on Monday.

The scheme, as explained by Mr. Bommai at a public meeting organised to launch the scheme at the Lambani hamlet, envisioned to build around 24,000 well-equipped classrooms for government schools across the State in the next three years.

“This year, we have planned to build 7,600 classrooms and the required amount of funds is allocated. In the history of the State, after it was born in 1956, there has never been such a magnitude of work, i.e., building 7,600 school classrooms in a year,” Mr. Bommai said, after laying the foundation stone for a few classrooms at Madihal Tanda on Monday. He added that the scheme envisaged building 8,000 new classrooms every year in the next two years.

“Some people asked me if we will retain power in the State in the next Assembly elections. I told them that the development initiatives, once commenced, could not be retracted. We have set a target of building 8,000 classrooms every year and no government in the future can stop it. There are many schoolchildren here and I don’t want to talk politics. Yet, I will say, at least for the mediapersons present here, that I am confident of retaining power in the State,” Mr. Bommai said.

Mr. Bommai also made it clear that he has approved 1,060 classrooms additionally for the Kalyana Karnataka region and promised to approve another 900 classrooms soon after he returned to Bengaluru. “Kalyana Karnataka has 41 Assembly constituencies and I am giving around 2,000 classrooms for it, which means 40-50 classrooms for each constituency,” Mr. Bommai said.

Obliquely referring to the previous Congress government to compare with his government in the specific aspect, Mr. Bommai said that the previous government built around 4,000 classrooms in its five-year tenure and most of them remained incomplete. “We have also decided to renovate old classrooms and a sum of ₹200 crore has been reserved for it,” Mr. Bommai said.

Mr. Bommai said that his decision to allocate ₹250 crore for the construction of toilets in all government schools across the State has been influenced by parents of a girl student who met him at a Jana Spandana [interaction with people] programme with a request to build toilets in all government schools.

“The parents told me at the Jana Spandana programme that their young daughter was declining to go to school. When I probed, the parents said that the absence of toilets in the school was the reason behind her refusal. The parents humbly requested me to build toilets. It was the day I decided to see that all government schools have functional toilets by the next Independence Day and allocated ₹250 crore for the purpose,” Mr. Bommai said.

The Chief Minister also announced the construction of 4,000 additional Anganwadis, which will be over and above the one already sanctioned, in the State at a cost of ₹15 lakh each and promised that Kalyana Karnataka region will get 1,500 of these.

“Our aim is to ensure that the children of the last man in society will have an opportunity to get educated. The development of the State rests in the education [of its young students]. That is why we are focusing on expanding educational infrastructure. We regularised the services of guest lecturers recently. The appointment of 15,000 school teachers is in the final stages,” Mr. Bommai said.

The Chief Minister also added that the practice of Yoga and meditation will be made mandatory in schools from the next academic year for the development of physical and mental health of students.

Earlier, Mr. Bommai paid floral tribute to the first Prime Minister late Jawaharlal Nehru whose birth anniversary is celebrated as Children’s Day and offered sweets to a few students to convey his best wishes to the entire student community on Children’s Day.

Education Minister B.C. Nagesh, Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani, KKRDB Chairman Dattatreya Patil Revoor and Lok Sabha member from Kalaburagi Umesh Jadhav were among those present.