ZP drive to accord land ownership rights to schools

A drive is being conducted in the district to accord ownership rights to government schools of the land on which they are situated, said Chief Executive Officer of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat K.N. Vijay Prakash. The right of ownership will be documented in the RTC (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops) of the land, he said.

Co-chairing the meeting of District Planning Committee here on Thursday, Mr. Prakash said several government schools in the district did not own the land on which they were built. This included the schools built on land donated by people. Absence of right of ownership of the land in the RTC was coming in the way of carrying out development activities in schools.

Mr. Prakash said Deputy Director of Public Instruction and Block Education Officers (BEOs) had given a taluk-wise list of schools that did not have land ownership rights to revenue authorities. Two Assistant Commissioners and tahsildars had been asked to allot the land in the name of schools and make a corresponding entry in the RTC. BEOs had been asked to follow up with tahsildars, Mr. Prakash said. “We hope to complete the exercise in another two months,” he said.

Deputy Project Coordinator of Sarva Shikshana Abhiyan said work to build compound walls of 407 government schools was on. An amount of Rs. 55,000 was being spent on each school. Any more funds needed for the construction of compound walls would be sourced from schemes, including the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. So far, work on 103 schools had been completed, the officer said.

Mr. Prakash directed executive officers of taluk panchayats to expedite the work of constructing toilets in every house by the end of February.

The executive officer and Panchayat Development Officer of gram panchayat had been given the responsibility of building toilets in every house in the panchayat. “If they are not executing it, inform us, we will take action,” Mr. Prakash said.

Zilla panchayat president Koragappa Naika chaired the meeting. Zilla Panchayat members talked about ways of make the Development Committee meeting more effective.