Manzoor Naik Demands Creation of a New Education Zone for Rajnagar Budhal

GNS ONLINE NEWS PORTAL

ZAHID SHAH

BUDHAL OCT, 24:-BJP leader manzoor Ahmed Naik, has demanded the creation of a new Education Zone for Rajnagar Budhal to address the growing administrative and educational challenges faced by students and teachers in the region.

While addressing at Budhal, Naik highlighted that the existing Education Zone Koteranka is vast and overburdened, extending from Mandir Gala to Khania Dandote. The zone presently covers 173 schools, including 19 private institutions, with a total student enrolment of around 12,500 — the highest in the Rajouri district compared to other education zones such as Sunderbani, Lower Hathal, and Baljaralan, which have enrolments between 6,000 and 6,500 students.

Naik stated that he personally visited several far-flung areas of Koteranka–Budhal over the past year and found that many schools are located 4 to 5 hours walking distance from the nearest road. Due to poor road connectivity and difficult terrain, academic inspections have not been conducted in several of these schools for over a decade, as Zonal Education Officers remain overburdened and the region continues to remain outside the effective reach of governance.

He further pointed out that the hilly geography adds to the hardships of teachers and locals, who must travel over 20 kilometers from Budhal to Koteranka to carry out routine educational tasks such as result confirmation, fee submission, certificate countersigning, and leave approvals.

Naik also expressed concern that several schools in Budhal are managed by a single teacher, who often has to close the school to attend administrative duties at Koteranka, disrupting the education of students.

Reiterating his demand, Naik said that establishing a new Education Zone in Budhal would ensure better administrative reach, smoother delivery of public services, and improved educational governance. It would also help in addressing key issues such as infrastructure development, staff management (attach/detach system), teacher absenteeism, and repair of school buildings.

Naik further informed that he had submitted a formal resolution in 2022 demanding the creation of this new education zone, but unfortunately, no progress has been made so far.

He urged the Government of Jammu and Kashmir to take this long-pending public demand seriously and initiate steps for the creation of a new Education Zone at Rajnagar Budhal, which, according to him, will bring a transformative improvement in the educational system of the region.