Jaipur, Jan 30 The Rajasthan government will demolish all dilapidated school buildings across the state and conduct third-party audits of every school structure, Education Minister Madan Dilawar told the Assembly on Friday, citing student safety ahead of the annual examinations.
Responding to a question by BJP MLA Sandeep Sharma during Question Hour, Dilawar said thousands of school buildings were in poor condition and posed a risk to students.
He informed the House that a dedicated committee assesses unsafe school buildings and submits its report to the District Education Officer (DEO) within a month. Based on these assessments, action is taken to repair or demolish the structures.
According to the Minister, around 18,000 school buildings in the state are currently in a dilapidated condition. Blaming the previous Congress government, Dilawar said necessary repairs were neglected. “The Congress government worked without proper planning. Buildings requiring urgent repairs were ignored, forcing us to undertake large-scale construction and repair work simultaneously,” he said.
Dilawar added that the government has now fixed clear timelines for construction, repairs, and demolition so that accountability is ensured at every stage. He assured the House that the work would be carried out in a phased manner and that the government would not backtrack on the issue.
The Minister also announced a major change in the audit mechanism. Until now, third-party audits were mandatory only for projects costing over Rs 30 crore. Going forward, all school buildings will undergo third-party audits, to be conducted through polytechnic colleges.
“This will ensure transparency and confirm whether construction work is being carried out properly,” Dilawar said.
During the discussion, Leader of the Opposition Tikaram Jully raised serious concerns over the condition of school infrastructure, alleging government inaction despite the risks. He claimed that in several areas, schools were operating out of temples and even poultry farms.
Jully further alleged that out of 45,365 schools in the state, nearly 41,000 require repairs. While 3,768 buildings are reportedly dilapidated, only 2,588 have been officially declared unsafe.
Criticising the government’s priorities, Jully said focus was being placed on teacher transfers instead of urgently repairing unsafe buildings. He also alleged that in cases where dilapidated school buildings collapsed, teachers were suspended while engineers responsible for the structures were spared.
The issue led to an uproar in the Assembly, with opposition members demanding immediate steps to ensure student safety.
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