provide facilities in primary and upper primary, said HC.

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Provide facilities in primary and upper primary said HC.

      The Odisha high court said it is the need of the hour to ensure basic facilities in all primary and upper primary schools of the state "on a war footing" so that the required classrooms,bench and desks, potable water, toilet, electricity,etc,are provided to students by March end.

      The two-judge bench of Chief Justice S  Muralidhar and Justice M S Raman said,"When the next academic year starts all primary and upper primary schools in the state must have most of the basic facilities."The exercise has to be taken up on a war footing."

     "The court is conscious of the recent budget that has been passed by the state government allocation for this very purpose and it is essential that it is used for that purpose at the earliest possible time so that the benefit reaches all the school children studying in these schools," the bench said.

      The bench directed the school & mass education department secretary Aswathy S to herself undertake the exercise by first calling for report from each of the district education officers(DEOs) on actual condition of primary and upper primary schools indicating availability of all basic facilities as the checklist and then drew up a detailed action plan without waiting for the court's order.

     The bench which was hearing a PIL registered  Motu by it on serious inadequacies in the primary education status in the state posted the matter to April 27 for stock taking of the progress in implementation of the court's order.

    The bench issued the direction to school & mass education secretary after taking note of the "dismal picture of infrastructure,if it can be called" in primary and upper Schools that amicus curiae Prafulla Kumar Rath presented in a report that was placed before the court.

   The report was based on data collected on availability of basic amenities during a visit to seven sample primary and upper primary schools in the remote parts of Boudh on December 9,2022.The bench also expected the secretary, school & mass education department to immediately peruse the amicus curiae's report which is only a representative sample of seven schools in Boudh and convene a meeting with the collector and district education officer and ensure that all funds are immediately released for the repair, upgrade and upkeep of all the seven schools and any other schools that require immediate attention.