Patna, (Bihar Times): The seventh regional office of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was inaugurated by the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav, in Shri Krishna Memorial Hall in Patna on Wednesday.
pix: Deepak Kumar
This is the first regional office to be set up since 1990-91. when the Board decided to go for regional expansion. It would run from the Bihar State Financial Corporation building and cater to the need of 12 lakh students of X and XII in Bihar and Jharkhand. There are 500 CBSE affiliated schools in these two states and till now they were governed by the Allahabad regional office of CBSE. Another office is likely to open in Bhubaneswar soon.
“It is a big moment for Bihar,” was how the chairman of CBSE, Ashok Ganguly, announced before the audience, which mostly comprises young students. He, however, said that it would take three months for the Centre to become fully functional. Senior bureaucrat Manoj Srivastava has been made the in-charge of the regional office. However, the name of the regional director will be announced soon.
Lalu used the occasion to champion the cause of nuclear deal though he, at the same time said that the Left has its own compulsion to withdraw support. However, he made it amply clear that Left was still his best friend. To buttress his points he in his inimitable style sang: Sao Sal Pahle Hamein Tum Se Pyar Tha Aaj bhi hai aur kal bhi rahega.He flayed the Nitish Kumar government for failing on all thr fronts.
Bihar’s minister of human resources, Hari Narayan Singh, could not turn up on the occasion leaving the field for the RJD leaders present on the occasion to go all out against the Nitish government. Union Minister of state for human resources development, M M A Fatmi, with the help of data, tried to drive home the point that the state government had failed miserably on the education front.
He said that though the fund for Sarva Sikhsa Abhiyan had increased by the ten times in the last four years––from Rs 375 crore to 3,340 crores yet the Nitish government failed to utilize it. Over 57,000 teachers could not be appointed and against the target of opening 16,000 new schools not even 10 had been completed so far. Of the 390 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Awasya Vidyalaya not even 150 are functional.
He went on to charge that six Kendriya Vidyalaya could not come up in Bihar because the state government refused to give land.
