NEW DELHI, March 2 - The Centre has ruled out the possibility of opening of new Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) in Assam.
In a letter to Kaliabor MP Gaurav Gogoi, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said that all the existing districts in Assam as on May 2014 have been covered under the Scheme. An additional JNV has also been sanctioned for Karbi Anglong, which has a large concentration of Schedule Tribe population.
Out of the 28 JNVs sanctioned for Assam, 21 JNVs are functioning from their own permanent buildings, while six are functioning from temporary sites. One JNV sanctioned for Kamrup is yet to be made functional as the Government of Assam has not provided land.
Meanwhile, Gaurav Gogoi said that the latest reply is against the promise made by the former HRD Minister and will have an extremely negative impact on the people of the tea garden community, specifically in Golaghat district.
Gogoi said that he will again take up the issue in Parliament until a proper interface is derived and meet the HRD Minister to continue the demand for new Navodaya Vidyalayas in Assam for tea garden community children.
At an official function in the presence of then Union Minister of Sports Sarbananda Sonowal, the Kaliabor MP said Smriti Irani had promised that these 14 schools would specifically focus on tea garden kids.
Meanwhile, Javadekar said that under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan science laboratory along with lab equipment and computers were approved for 1,000 government schools in tea garden areas.
At least 500 government and government-aided secondary and higher secondary schools were also approved in tea garden areas under the ICT component of the RMSB, the Minister added.
