Just in time to beat the Election Code of Conduct, the Pallam Raju-led Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is set to announce 54 new Kendriya Vidyalayas at a cost of Rs 900 crore. Clearly guided by political considerations rather than region specific requirement, the government will set up more than 30 of these schools in the constituencies of Congress MPs. Of these, two KVs will be set up in Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareli and another in Rahul Gandhi’s stronghold Amethi. Of the five KVs proposed to be set up in Uttar Pradesh, only one has gone to a non-Congress MP — Usha Verma of Samajwadi Party at Hardoi. Incidentally, Sultnapur district, where Amethi falls, already has two KVs and Rae Bareli has one. Kamal Nath whose constituency Chhindwara already has 4 KVs will get one more at Jamai. With HRD Minister Pallam Raju gifting one KV to his own constituency of Kakinada and a record 11 KVs to his state Andhra Pradesh, several other Congress leaders will go into elections with this one last item on their achievement list — a Kendriya Vidyalaya in their constituency. Leaving nothing to chance, the government earlier this month quietly permitted a kind of back door entry for setting up of Kendriya Vidyalayas branch schools in Amethi, Kakinada, Chhindwara and Jagdambika Pal’s constituency Siddarth Nagar. These schools will get regularised as full-fledged independent KVs once Cabinet approval comes through. While as per rules, a KV can set up a branch school if the latter is in the same district, things have obviously been stretched in these cases. The proposal to set up 54 new KVs already has approval from the Expenditure Finance Committee and is expected to be rushed through for Cabinet approval this week. It will take Rs 300 crore in this Plan period and another Rs 600 crore over the next Plan period to set up these schools. Six new KVs will come up in Orissa, five in Uttar Pardesh, four each in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two in Himachal Pradesh and one each in Bihar, Arunachal Pardesh and Delhi. The non-Congress beneficiaries of the Kendriya Vidyalaya dole include Jat leader Kirodi Lal Meena, sitting MP from Dausa and Tathagat Satpaty of the Biju Janta Dal whose constituency will get a school at Angul.
