The Telangana government has sought the support of the Andhra Pradesh government for use of the software developed for the ‘Nadu-Nedu’ scheme – the flagship school revamp programme of the Jaganmohan Reddy government.
A.P. Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy has asked the officials to extend support to Telangana officials after Principal Secretary Higher Education Sandeep Kumar Sultania wrote to his AP counterpart B. Rajashekhar seeking No-Objection Certificate (NoC) for use of the software developed by the TCS exclusively for the AP government.
Mr. Sultania in his letter said that TCS had requested them for an NoC from the AP government since an end-to-end encrypted software was developed exclusively for the Nadu-Nedu scheme. He said the government of Telangana had embarked on a school infrastructure development project similar to that of Nadu-Nedu and the TCS had expressed that the Telangana government had to acquire a formal NoC from the AP government for designing a similar software.
The decision to approach the AP government was taken after the Cabinet Sub Committee on strengthening school infrastructure at its meeting on Thursday discussed the ways and means to implement the plan.
The Cabinet sub-committee was formed after the government in its 2021 budget announced the scheme to upgrade government schools with an allocation of ₹4,000 crore over the next two years. The scheme envisages construction and repair of buildings and sanitation facilities, and provision of furniture and other amenities.
However, it is yet to be known whether the TCS would be asked to make changes to suit the needs of Telangana government’s plans or adopt it completely.
The Nadu-Nedu scheme of AP was launched in 2019 to transform the existing infrastructure of the 44,512 schools in a phased manner over a period of three years. Under the programme, which has been catching the attention of all the states in the country, nine infrastructure components are being taken up — toilets with running water, drinking water supply, repairs, electrification with fans and tube lights, furniture for students and staff, green chalk boards, painting of schools, compound walls and English labs. Under Phase-I, the scheme will cover 15,715 schools of which works in 15,115 have been launched. So far, ₹3,046 crore has been released.
