Rs 470 crore needed for new schools in Orissa

Bhubanewar :The Centre for Science and Youth Development (CYSD), a city-based non-governmental organization (NGO) has recommended that the state government needs to set aside an additional Rs 470 crore in the state budget for the establishment of new schools in the state.

The NGO has pointed out that there is only one school in every 3.2 sq km area in Orissa and 12262 villages in the state have no schools.

Hence, an allocation of an additional Rs 470 crore in the budget for 2010-11 will help to meet the ideal requirement of one school per sq km.

The teacher pupil ratio in the state currently stands at 1:3 which includes 52,000 para teachers and more budget is needed to appoint 65092 regular teachers needed for the state.

Moreover, 6.62 per cent of the schools have no buildings and only 21 per cent of the schools have separate toilets for girls.

The additional allocation will help in the effective implementation of the Right to Education Act of the Government of India.

The demand for a greater budgetary allocation for primary education was made at a pre-budget consultation organized jointly by the CYSD, Human Development Foundation and Action Aid India, an organization working towards poverty eradication.

In the healthcare sector, CYSD has pointed out that the state needs 14250 doctors to match the pan-India doctor: patient ratio of 1:1916.

This calls for a budgetary allocation of Rs 428 crore.

The state government needs to spend Rs 200 crore to set up two more medical colleges in the state and Rs 118 crore is needed to create addition manpower of paramedical staff like nurses, technicians and radiographers.

The budgetary allocation for medicines at the Primary Health Centres and Community Heath Centres (CHCs) last year was only Rs two crore and this needs to be hiked to Rs 45 crore in this year's budget.

Correspondingly, an additional Rs 225.5 crore has to be provided for patients at the PHCs and CHCs.

CYSD has suggested that the state government should improve public spending in education and health and strive to bridge the gap in allocation and actual utilization of the funds meant for these sectors.

Speaking on the occasion, the state finance minister Prafulla C Ghadai said, “This year's budget will focus more on social security measures, education and health. Steps are being taken to check the refund of the budgetary allocation by the different departments.”

D K Roy, executive director, HDF said, the budget for the marginalized should be enhanced and spent properly.