Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

16-April-2012 18:52 IST

Union Finance Minister Dedicates SPMCIL Buildings for Satya Bharati School at Dhamua & Pomia in West Bengal

The Union Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee has dedicated Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) buildings for Satya Bharati School at Dhamua, Block Sagardigi and Pomia Block Nabagram in Disrtict Murshidabad, West Bengal on last Saturday. With dedication of these two schools, as a part of its innovative Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives, SPMCIL has so far dedicated 09 primary schools in the District Murshidabad of West Bengal.

During the programme, the Union Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukerjee applauded the initiatives taken by SPMCIL under CSR especially in the field imparting education to the girl child & under privilege section of the rural areas. He praised the unique arrangement undertaken by SPMCIL with Bharti Foundation for imparting education in the rural areas. He expected that the quality education being imparted through modern means of teaching in these schools would raise the education standard of the children having rural background and would greatly help them in acquiring bright employment opportunities in future.

Earlier Shri MS Rana, CMD, SPMCIL informed that SPMCIL has undertaken numerous innovative CSR initiatives in recent past. In order to promote education in backward areas, SPMCIL has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bharti Foundation for construction, equipping and management of primary schools in Murshidabad District, West Bengal. The Bharti Foundation is successfully running more than 242 primary and 5 senior secondary schools in six state of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamilnadu and West Bengal. As a part of MoU, Bharti Foundation has acquired land for construction of schools and SPMCIL has provided necessary capital funding for construction and provided furniture and other equipment to facilitate quality education.

He further added that as a feeder senior secondary school for the pass out students of these primary schools, SPMCIL has also decided to construct one Sr. Secondary School at Kandigihi enabling them to access quality higher education in their vicinity. The foundation of Sr. Secondary School has already been laid by the Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukerjee on 21 January 2012. He further informed that there has been substantive increase in enrollment of rural children in these schools and so far encouraging enrollment of girl child has been achieved which constitute 51.31% of total enrollment.

SPMCIL has undertaken various CSR initiatives in the field of School Education, Health & Family Welfare, Upliftment of Weaker Sections of the Society, Environment and Social Development, Public Awareness of Civic Amenities at total cost of 3.84 crore during 2010-11 and has achieved excellent rating in MoU targets of CSR.

During 2011-12, SPMCIL has exceeded the targeted expenditure under CSR and has so far spent Rs. 4 crore against target of 3.5 crore and has achieved excellent MoU rating. During 2011-12, these initiatives were undertaken in the field of construction of schools, improvement of civic amenities and road safety, provision of artificial limbs, calipers, crutches etc for the physically challenged person, enhanced use of solar energy, rain water harvesting system and better sanitation projects in the state of West Bengal, Maharasthra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh .

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DSM/SS/Hb

Corporate Social Responsibility enables SPMCIL-Bharti Foundation partnership to fund and operate rural primary schools, expanding education access. SPMCIL executed a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative through an MoU with Bharti Foundation whereby SPMCIL provided capital funding, school construction, furniture and equipment and Bharti Foundation managed land acquisition, construction oversight and operation of primary schools in Murshidabad, with plans for a feeder senior secondary school and reported increases in rural enrollment and female participation.