Parents plan to fund school requirements

Parents plan to fund school requirements

Puja Pednekar / DNA

January 5, 8:03 IST

http://www.dnaindia.com/mobile/report.php?n=1785703

Mumbai: Parents of students studying at the Oshiwara’s Raigad Military School met on Friday to decide how to mitigate the woes of their children ahead of the exam season. The school has been facing trouble due to internal disputes between its two factions.

During the meeting held between students’ parents and office-bearers of Forum For Fairness in Education — a non-government organisation, that has taken up cudgels for the parents — considered pooling in funds to keep the academic institute running.

“We have decided to knock at the doors of the court only if all other measures fail,” said the parent of a student.

Even as exams are a couple of months away, students are being forced to study in the dark classrooms over the last fortnight. Electricity to the school building has been cut off and the school is unable to contribute towards its expenses as its bank account has allegedly been frozen. Besides, water supply to the building has been disrupted and toilets are not in a usable condition, complained parents.

The parents said they were at the end of their tether as they were not receiving any support from senior education officials. Jayant Jain of the Forum For Fairness in Education said that their complaints had been ignored by education authorities who expressed inability to help, saying the school is affiliated to the CBSE [Central Board of Secondary Education] board.

“But every school requires an NOC [no-objection certificate] from the state government. How can the state education authorities shrug off their responsibility?” said Jain who spoke to DNA on behalf of the parents of students. “As a last resort, we will just have to go to court.”

 

Direct cash scheme launched in 6 dists

Direct cash scheme launched in 6 dists

DNA Correspondent

January 2, 11:54 IST

http://www.dnaindia.com/mobile/report.php?n=1784579

Mumbai: Now, more than 51,000 beneficiaries in Mumbai and its suburbs will be able to directly transfer money from state and central schemes to their bank accounts. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan launched the direct cash transfer scheme in six districts of the state on Tuesday.

While Mumbai has nearly 21,000 beneficiaries of 11 government schemes, the suburbs have nearly 29,400. Almost 90% of the beneficiaries have opened their bank accounts for the benefits of the scheme, although enrolment percentage of Aadhaar is 60% in Mumbai and 56% in the suburbs.

After the launch of the Aadhar-linked direct cash transfer, a dozen beneficiaries from a couple of schemes were handed over their bank cards for direct credit.

The six districts in Maharashtra were chosen from the shortlisted 42 for the cash transfer scheme. The state government has shortlisted 11 schemes for the beneficiaries’ of these districts.

Maharashtra is number two in terms of enrolment for Aadhar cards, with nearly 5 crore citizens having enrolled for it.

Mumbai Guardian minister Jayant Patil said the government wishes to bring all 35 districts under the scheme by end of September 2013.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan termed the scheme a historic step that will help the government bring in great transparency.