Members of Andhra Pradesh Best Available Schools (BAS) Management Welfare Association on Thursday staged a protest in front of the Department of Girijan Welfare office at Mogulrajpuram, demanding immediate release of the pending funds to the tune of ₹150 crore.
Association president Paruchuri Srinivasa Rao said to impart English medium education to children belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government had established 380 Best Available Schools across the State. But under the rule of Jagan Mohan Reddy, the future of these schools was under threat.
He said these schools, which had nearly 40,000 student strength, had not been given any funds since 2018-19. He said the absence of funds and the pandemic that had resulted in the lockdown had been posing a threat to the survival of these schools. The purpose of setting up these schools was to enable children from SC, ST communities to study in English medium schools till X class.
Reiterating his demand to release the pending funds, Mr. Rao said the government should do the needful without any further delay.
The Best Available Schools were identified and categorised for imparting quality education to the SC/ST students from classes I to X.
Association secretary P.K Reddy from Anantapur, co-convenor M.B. Sarma from West Godavari, treasurer C.L. Naidu (Srikakulam), G.V. Rao (East Godavari), Ramachandra Reddy (Chittoor), Tulasi Prasad (Guntur) and others were present.