In this age of information revolution, there are four Government Inter Colleges (GICs) located in the Dharchula block of Pithoragarh district where there is no mobile connectivity due to which the information regarding the examination of Uttarakhand board is reaching the authorities after 24 hours. Incidentally, Dharchula holds the tag of being the constituency of Chief Minister Harish Rawat.
These schools are GIC Jhuma, GIC Kheela, GIC Khet and Rathi. It is learnt that public sector BSNl erected mobile towers recently erected at Thanidhar and Rathi villages but they have not become operational yet. The invigilators of these examination centres deliver the information and other messages to district authorities in person every day.
The officials of Ramnagar based Uttarakhand Vidhyalayi Shiksha Parishad (UVSP) confirmed that information like number of candidates appeared and other are received a day after exam as these places have no access to mobile connectivity. There are more than 800 students enrolled in class X and XII examinations of Uttarakhand Board from these four centres this year.
The officials, however, added that there are other government inter colleges located in Chamoli, Pithoragarh, Pauri and Rudraprayag where the connectivity is poor but information from these centres is received same day. It is worth mentioning here that an Inter College is set up in bigger and prominent locations with a substantial local population.
When contacted, BJP leader and in charge of Dharchula constituency, Jagat Martoliya told The Pioneer that there are many places in the Chief Minister’s constituency where mobile connectivity is not there. He listed Makam Kailash, Pangla, Jaikot, Pangu, Kota, Pandrahtal as such areas. The BJP leader claimed that the development is taking place in papers only and there is no change in ground in Dharchula despite it being a high profile constituency.