M. Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, has stressed the need to improve the standard of education in Hyderabad Karnataka region by imparting quality education to children belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and minorities.
He was speaking after inaugurating the Morarji Desai Urdu Residential School building, constructed at an estimated cost of Rs. 11 crore on 9 acres of land by the Backward Classes and Minority Department at Savalagi (B) village in Aland taluk in Kalaburagi district on Monday.
Decrying the sorry state of education in Hyderabad Karnataka region, Mr. Kharge said that education is an important instrument in economic empowerment. With an aim to promote quality education and to improve literacy rate among rural masses, the government has set up Morarji Desai Residential Schools in each hobli across the State, he added.
Responding to the demand from villagers for an English-medium school, Mr. Kharge said that the newly sanctioned Morarji Desai English Medium School at Hagaraga village would be shifted to Savalgi (B) village and the Morarji Desai Urdu Residential School will continue to function from Hagaraga village after the completion of work on the school building.
Recalling the contribution of B.R. Ambedkar to the nation, he said that Ambedkar played a crucial role in nation building by framing the Constitution.
Though Constitution enshrines social justice and equal rights, people even today fight among themselves over the right to have burial grounds for each community. The caste system had not spared even the dead, he regretted. Mr. Kharge called upon students and people to protect the secular fabric of the nation.
Mr. Kharge also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for claiming all credit for digital revolution started by the then Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi.
He said that Mr. Modi did not initiate the digital India drive; it was the brainchild of Mr. Gandhi who initiated it in 1984.
Minister for Medical Education Sharanprakash Patil said that he would write to Tanveer Sait, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education and Minority Affairs, for shifting the Morarji Desai English Medium Residential School to Savalagi (B) village.
Qamarul Islam, MLA, said that the government has sanctioned 2,034 posts in minority schools in 2015-16 of which 1,012 were filled in the first phase.
The remaining vacancies would be filled in the second phase, he added.
Mr. Islam asked the department officials to keep tab on the quality of food served in schools.
