‘Govt society failed to use Rs 90-cr EDUSAT fund’

ISRO was to provide basic equipment like a hub and 10 satellite interactive terminals (SITs) to every state. Additional SITs and receive only terminals (ROTs) were to be procured by the state government. Haryana government had constituted a committee of 11 members to take policy decisions and chalk out modalities to set up EDUSAT. It also got a society,UTKARSH,registered to implement EDUSAT in the state.

Scrutiny of records of UTKARSH society revealed that the state government made a payment of Rs 90.59 crore between 2005-08 to install 10,992 terminals in various educational institutions identified by the departments. “However,10,818 terminals were installed at different educational institutions in the state between May 2006 and October 2008. Out of the remaining 174 terminals,81 ROTs and audio equipment were yet to be supplied by ISRO,as the society had not finalised the sites,and whereabouts of 93 ROTs were not provided. The system remained functional for a short period and went down in March 2010,” the CAG stated in its report.

“The society appointed 21 junior engineers. By July 2012,as many as 5,779 terminals (56 per cent) out of 10,282 visited by JEs were found out of order for want of minor repair and replacement of minor equipment. This had not only deprived the students of intended benefits of the programme,but also an investment of Rs 47.01 crore was lying unutilised,” the report further stated.

“The society failed to address the problems in the network as only 21 JEs were appointed for a network of 10,818 terminals in January 2011 that was after three years of installation of terminals and only 4,000 batteries were purchased against the requirement of 16,000 batteries. Due to lack of monitoring by the society,the objectives of the programme to provide extensive reach of quality education could not be achieved till November 2012,as many as 56 per cent terminals were still non-functional,” the CAG stated.