PAC divided on education department performance

The differences between the Congress and TDP legislators in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) were further exposed when members from both parties took potshots at one another on Wednesday before the media soon after the PAC meet.

The members of the PAC met at the committee hall on the Assembly premises and reviewed the performance of primary education and higher education departments with the officials concerned.

Soon after the meeting, TDP members in the committee B Durga Prasad and Devineni Umamheswara Rao alleged that the officials in the higher education and primary education departments were not keeping proper records of the revenue and expenditure of various universities.

Officials were trying to skirt the issue by saying that the universities were autonomous bodies being governed by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The PAC had asked the officials concerned to furnish all the records pertaining to the accounts of various universities in a month period, they said.

They also alleged that officials of the primary education department were unable to give proper reasons for the poor academic performance of the students in government elementary schools.

According to them, the officials of the primary education department were unable to give the details of the total strength of the students in the government elementary schools and the number of dropouts.

The educational standards at the government-run elementary schools were very low and the students were being served with poor quality mid-day meal, they alleged.

Meanwhile, Congress legislator Katasani Rambhupal Reddy expressed his displeasure over the remarks of the TDP MLAs on the officials of the primary and secondary education departments.

He alleged that the TDP MLAs were trying to politicise the reviews being held in the PAC.

"The members of the principal opposition party discuss one thing in the PAC meeting and speak something else before the media after the meeting," he said.

However, Durga Prasad and Devenini Uma dismissed the allegations of Katasani as false.

Original news source