PESHAWAR: Representatives of the owners of Hayatabad-based private schools have rejected the procedure of auctioning amenity plots for construction of school buildings and demanded of the provincial government to give the plots on reasonable rates without auction.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, National Education Council chairman Nazar Hussain said that the basic price of four-kanal amenity plot at Phase-4 was Rs250 million which the owners of normal standard schools could not afford.

Flanked by other representatives, including Ahmad Ali Marwat and Mohammad Tariq, Mr Hussain said that such auctions had been held by the Peshawar Development Authority in the recent past, but no one was in the position to take part in the bidding due to the high rates. He said that the provincial assembly had passed a law in 1992 to provide plots to schools on reasonable rates, but the incumbent government was not following the policy.

The NEC chief feared that if the government did not give plots on reasonable rates the owners of the schools would be forced to raise monthly fee and as a result the parents would suffer.