BHUBANESWAR: The Panchasakha Shikhya Setu scheme, which is the rechristened version of the previous BJD government’s Mo School Abhiyan, will be implemented by a new society - Panchasakha Shikhya Setu Sangathan. This society will facilitate alumni and donors’ involvement in the development of public schools.
The School and Mass Education department on Friday released the modalities for implementation of the scheme by the society which will be headed by the chief secretary of the state. The scheme will have district and state-level committees that will be headed by the collector and secretary of the department respectively.
Like Mo School Abhiyan, there is no lower or upper limit to the contributions under the renamed scheme but the government’s matching grant has been capped at Rs 50 lakh under the new provision.
“The state government will provide twice the donated amount as the matching grant under the scheme. But, there shall be an upper cap of `50 lakh on the contribution of the government for a school irrespective of contributions from donors, individuals, foundations or CSRs. Besides, government contribution will flow only after the requirement of a school is identified,” said an official of the department.
Amidst allegations that low quality infrastructure work had been done in schools under Mo School Abhiyan, the secretary of School and Mass Education department, chief secretary, and collector or any persons appointed by them, will inspect if the work carried out under the Panchasakha Shikhya Setu scheme meets the quality norms.
After coming to power, the BJP had decided to rename the Mo School Abhiyan as Panchasakha Sikhya Setu and it had reasoned that the name change was aimed at giving due respect to the five statesmen who have contributed immensely to the development of Odisha. The statesmen are Achyutananda Das, Ananta Das, Jasobanta Das, Jagannatha Das and Balarama Das. The state government has set aside a budget of Rs 332 crore for the scheme for this financial year.