Jaipur, March 1 -- The Rajasthan education department has directed district authorities to make arrangements for a special drive to issue licenses to schools identified as functioning without land rights after data revealed that over 58% of government schools in the state have been running without valid land leases. The education department on Saturday ordered the primary education department and secondary education directorate to order district education officers to submit a report to the department in a month. "The chief secretary V Srinivasan had already directed all the district collectors to organise camps to distribute pattas to the departments. The primary education department and the secondary education directorate are hereby ordered to notify the same to the district education officers to take this order in top priority and make necessary arrangements for the camps in their concerned districts from next week," read a copy of the order seen by HT. According to the official data shared by the education department, at least 37,696 out of 64,687 government schools in Rajasthan do not yet have any land rights. There are 19,950 primary schools currently running in the state- out of which 9,976 do not have land rights while 27,720 out of 44,737 secondary schools are also suffering from the same. A further classification of the data also showed that 709 out of 807 primary schools in Barmer have been identified running without a land lease, followed by 476 out of 725 schools in Bikaner, 474 out of 544 schools in Ajmer, and 441 out of 769 in Jodhpur. Meanwhile, the corresponding figure for the secondary schools were 2,355 out of 2,407 in Barmer followed by 1,311 out of 1,882 schools in Jaipur, 1,262 out of 1,379 schools in Bikaner, 1,239 out of 2,052 schools in Banswara, and 1,136 out of 1,628 schools in Jodhpur. "Ensuring legal security of land for our government schools is foundational to strengthening school infrastructure, enabling development works and safeguarding public assets in the long run. A significant number of Government schools across the state, though have their own land, yet continue to function without formal land lease (patta), which constrains planning, investment and optimal utilisation of resources. In this context, I would like to request you to personally lead a one-day special camp for issuance of land lease (patta) in mission mode to all landless Government schools in your District, after due verification and as per prevailing rules," said the chief secretary in his interim order to the collectors previously. "This is a priority governance intervention that calls for focused administrative attention and inter-departmental coordination. You may consider involving officers from the Revenue Department, Education Department, Department of Local Self Government, GoR and Panchayati Raj Institutions to ensure that cases are disposed expeditiously on the same day to the maximum extent possible," the order had added....