Shillong, June 7: The unavailability of land has led to delay in the construction of over 40 Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) across the state.

The EMRS were sanctioned by the Centre at Rs 24 crore each during the financial year 2018-2019.

Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma told reporters on Wednesday that he would immediately review the status of these 40 EMRS next week.

“Because of (unavailability) of land, there has been a delay in the construction of these schools. In Meghalaya under the Sixth Schedule, the land belongs to the people unlike in Assam where land belongs to the government,” Sangma said.

“Most of the lands have been parted with the hope for some kind of compensation or job opportunity to the land owners. However, the ministry (Govt of India) did not accept this as they wanted land free of cost,” he added.

When asked, the minister however said, “I will be taking a review next week with all deputy commissioners of the different districts and I think as a state government we will be taking up with the land owners that we will take responsibility of giving some jobs to land owners.”

According to him, construction of the schools is already delayed by 4-5 years. “We are already late but this year, it is my commitment we will see the work will start on construction of these EMRS…,” he added.

Earlier, Adviser to the Education department and former Mawsynram legislator HM Shangpliang said, “We have discussed with the minister that we are going to take a review very shortly to start with the construction of these schools. Therefore, the particular stakeholders who are involved in the construction of these schools have been called and they would be meeting the minister and me and we are going to take the review so that we can start the construction at the earliest as possible.”

He said, “But there are reports that there are some blocks where lands have not been arranged or have not been made available and therefore perhaps the government will be giving just one month more time to such blocks to provide the land, otherwise, we are going to shift those schools somewhere else where land is made available.”

Stating that land has become a major factor, he said that the blocks have to provide 15 hectares of land free of cost and that is the policy of the government of India, adding “but nevertheless, we are on the job and we would like these schools to start at the earliest.”