Srinagar, Jan 16: The state government spent just 34 per cent of the budget approved for the technical education in 2017-18 fiscal.
Of the approved Rs 4,141.12 lakh, only Rs 1,435.96 lakh was spent by the Technical Education Department till September, the Economic Survey-2017 compiled by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics J&K has revealed.
Against the approved amount of Rs 3,114 lakh for Polytechnic sector and Rs 1027.12 lakh for ITI sector, only Rs 1,295.95 lakh and Rs 140.01 lakh were utilised, respectively, as per the survey.
With an intake capacity of 5,835 students, the survey has said that there are 32 (24 government and eight private) polytechnic colleges including three women colleges in the state offering 3-year diploma after 10th in various Engineering & Non-Engineering Courses approved by AICTE, New Delhi.
Apart from the polytechnics, there are 88 ITIs with an intake capacity of 19,500 students offering 2 year, 1 year and 6 month’s craftsman training in different Engineering & Non-Engineering trades approved by National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT), New Delhi and State Council for Vocational Training (SCVT), J&K, says the survey.
Director Technical Education Department, Shabnum Shah Kamili, however, said the low expenditure indicated by the economic survey had been calculated only on the 50 per cent of the funds that the department received at the start of the financial year.
Claiming that the department has utilised “up to 75 per cent” of the amount till December, Kamili said the remaining half was delayed by months by the government.
Implying an acute shortage of manpower in the Technical Education Department, Kamili said, “Only 25 per cent of the salary budget was spent by the department.”
“The rest of the amount, we have to surrender because most of the posts in the department have not been filled. The salary of the staff under the academic arrangement is low as well,” she said.
Although all the 18 polytechnic colleges sanctioned by the government recently were functional, Kamili said some of them were still running from rented buildings.
“It took a year to consolidate the DPRs of the colleges. There were five colleges for which the land was not identified earlier. Out of them, land has been identified for four colleges,” she added.