BANGALORE: The High Court on Tuesday disposed of a Public Interest Litigation relating to the provision of basic facilities in primary and secondary schools in the state after the Principal Secretary for the Department of Primary and Secondary Education Kumar Naik appeared in court and submitted an affidavit.
A PIL had stated that on April 4, 2011, out of the 46,400 primary schools in the state, 4,844 did not have drinking water facility. The High Court had ordered the state to provide drinking water and toilet facilities to all government schools by December 31, 2011. Acting on the directive, the government has provided drinking water facility to 4,306 more primary schools.
Naik, in his affidavit, said: “Now, only 538 primary schools do not have the said facility due to water scarcity in the areas they are located in. The government had spent `4.86 crore for the purpose.”
“As many as 4,661 and 9,784 schools have been provided with toilets for boys and girls respectively; `17.46 crore and `51.70 crore have been spent for the purpose respectively,” he added. Of the 5,650 primary schools which earlier did not have toilets for boys, 4,661 schools have now have been provided with it. The government spent `17.46 crore on this count. As many 11,602 primary schools did not have toilets for girls. The government says that toilets are being constructed in as many as 9,784 schools. “The government has spent `51.70 crore for this purpose. Only 1,818 schools need to be provided with toilets.”
197 schools out of the 4,278 high schools did not have drinking water facility. Of these, 65 schools have been equipped with water facility, with the remaining with temporary arrangements.