Senior Advisor to CM Lt Gen TS Shergill (left), Brig Sukhjit Singh and Principal Cmdr Shakti Sharma at the Sainik School in Kapurthala on Friday. A Tribune Photograph

Rachna Khaira

Tribune news Service

Jalandhar, April 21

Taking cognisance of a news report published in the Tribune on March 29 pertaining to the dilapidated condition of Maharaja Jagatjit Palace housing Kapurthala Sainik School, a team from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) today visited the school to assess its condition.Principal Cmdr Shakti Sharma said senior advisor to the CM Lt Gen TS Shergill (retd), Maharaja Kapurthala Brig Sukhjit Singh and Karan Veer Singh, political secretary to Lieutenant General Shergill, checked the school building, most of whose rooms were declared unsafe.“After a report was published in The Tribune, I met the Finance Secretary on April 19 and was assured of complete support by the present regime. The team today had a look at the 108-year-old school building and assured that experts will be hired to maintain the glory of the historic palace,” said Cmdr Sharma.The team also assured the school authorities that since the building requires a complete makeover, the repair works will be carried out in a phased manner. Also, the government will revise the scholarship slab for poor students, which is currently Rs 1.80 lakh per annum. The state government is also contemplating to grant diet money to the students on the lines of the Haryana Sainik School, whose students are getting Rs 75 a day.“The only task given to school authorities is to get maximum entries to the National Defence Academy in Pune. We accepted it,” said the Principal.Cmdr Sharma said the team also assured that the long-pending memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the state and the Centre would be signed soon to obtain financial aid from the MoD.About the school

• The Maharaja Jagatjit Palace was bought by the Punjab Government for Rs 16 lakh in 1961 to open a Sainik School.
• The school was the third in the line of five Sainik Schools established in 1961 across the country.
• The only library established in the Durbar Hall of the school was closed on August 13 last year after its ceiling started giving in
• At present, around 618 students study in the school
• The 12 hostels commissioned in 1963 are also on the brink of collapse and a majority of them have been declared unsafe