MAPUSA
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday informed the Goa Legislative Assembly that the first tranche of maintenance grants for schools has been released, while the second tranche which was held up due to Covid-19 pandemic would be released by
March 31.
He also said the government would make a provision in the upcoming budget to give grants to set up computer labs and other IT-related work in schools.
“Many schools have not provided utilisation certificates to the government. We have released the first installment of the maintenance grants to schools while the second was held up due to the pandemic. By March 31, we will clear that too,” said Sawant, who is also the Education Minister.
The Chief Minister was responding to a query of Marcaim MLA Ramkrishna Sudhin Dhavalikar during the Question Hour.
According to the Marcaim MLA, maintenance grants were not released to several aided schools in the academic year.
Porvorim MLA Rohan Khuante wanted to know whether the government had made any special financial provisions to schools on account of the pandemic considering that schools have to constantly carry out sanitisation of classrooms.
He also asked what steps have been taken to set up computer labs and CCTV cameras in schools.
The CM informed that no special grants or financial package was given to schools due to the pandemic.
“Several PTAs (parent teacher associations) have taken initiative on their own to take care of sanitisation of the schools,” Sawant said.
