Deptt has completed distribution of educational aids to students, HRDD Secy informs

SUPPLIERS TO BE PENALISED FOR DELAY IN MAKING DELIVERIES
GANGTOK, 06 Aug: Pulled up by the High Court of Sikkim for the delay in distribution of educational aids [like uniforms, raincoats, shoes, books and copies issued free] to students despite the academic session being nearly half over, the Human Resource Development Department today announced that the distribution process has now been completed.
Addressing a press briefing here today, the HRDD Secretary, CS Rao, informed that all the government facilities like school uniforms, shoes, socks, raincoats and bags have reached to the beneficiaries [government school students up to class V in urban areas and class VIII in rural schools].
What is more, the Department also plans to penalize the suppliers for the delay in reaching the ordered consignments to the Department.
Mr. Rao admitted that the High Court directions had helped the Department meet the target and complete the distribution for students, especially those from remote areas.
He explained today that the Department had issued the procurement orders in the last week of February and early March and had given two months to the suppliers to make the delivery. The delivery however was received only in end June and the Department completed onwards distributions to the students by the last week of July, he said.
He further informs that the delay in supply will cost to the suppliers a penalty at the rate of 0.01 per cent per day which will be deducted from the final settlement of dues of the suppliers.
The State Government distributes free uniforms, text books, text copies, shoes and other related aids to students upto class V in urban areas and upto class VIII in rural areas.
At present, 54,500 students upto Class V and another 35,000 students studying in rural areas of Sikkim at the Elementary level are availing the benefits of government scheme.
Besides this, the department is also focusing on quality education and leaving no stone unturned to improve the level of education in Sikkim, the Secretary states, adding that the standard of Sikkim students has been found to be better than students elsewhere in the country.
He further informed that the dropout rate has been significantly reduced to below 30 percent and this shows that the state government efforts in the education sector are showing positive results.
He also informed that all the text books are made available to all the schools before the academic session begins in February.
He admitted that part of the delay this time was due to the segregation of shoes and uniforms in the Department’s stores based on requisitions made by inividul schools. This was a time-consuming task for store keepers, he said.
He also expressed sincere gratitude towards the parents, office staff, Sikkim High Court and media for their cooperation which helped motivate the Department towards prompt action.