Classes at the new Meritorius School in Talwara of Hoshiarpur district, the seventh such school in Punjab, is yet to start. The reason is not hard to find – the school building is awaiting renovation, a hostel is yet to be made available and plenty of other works are pending.

“The session in other Meritorious Schools started around July 11th but here, no one knows (when it will begin),” said a student.

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The Punjab government set up six Meritorious Schools — one each in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Bhatinda, Jalandhar, Patiala and Mohali — in 2014 aimed at providing quality class 11 and 12 education to poor students who scored more than 80% in class 10.

The school in Talwara – an all-girls school that teaches humanities – has a total strength of 150 seats. The announcement for the school came in June 16, when counselling for the other Meritorius Schools was nearly done.

Sources in the government said that counselling process to the new school had been completed. Authorities are looking to provide provisional accommodation for the students.

Major General (retd.) K A S Bhullar could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.