'Rs34 cr allocated for day-to-day affairs of Delhi Education dept'

NEW DELHI: The Education department of Delhi government has received more than Rs 34.30 crore for expenditure of day-to-day affairs, which includes buying stationaries and identity cards, a reply to an RTI query accessed by the Millennium Post revealed.

"This fund is under the VKS (Vidyalaya Kalyan Samiti) and every year the fund is allocated for Delhi government schools. And the AAP government has increased the fund," said an official of the Education department.

The RTI reply revealed that the additional fund was allocated to all schools, as per demand raised by the head of the school concerned, and is subject to availability of the fund.

The official added that this fund helps schools in various developmental projects.

"The schools use this fund to buy books for library, copies and other things," he said, adding that the additional funds can be claimed by heads of schools as per requirement and with permission the of all committee members of the school.

Applying for this fund requires providing all necessary details to the Delhi government, which releases the fund to schools push for development of projects.

This year, the Education department received 24 per cent of the total outlay in the budget with allocation increased from Rs 10,690 crore to Rs 11,300 crore. The government allocated Rs 17 crore to build libraries for primary classes. Moreover, 400 new libraries for senior classes will be opened, for which Rs 100 crore has been allocated.

Earlier, Delhi Education minister Manish Sisodia had said that the Delhi government is the first to allocate most of its budget share to education, with 2017 being the consecutive third year that this is being done.

Since coming to power, the Aam Aadmi Party government has given priority to developing education infrastructure in the Capital.

This year, a total of 5,695 new classrooms in Delhi government schools were inaugurated across the city, making it the biggest expansion of school infrastructure, a Delhi government statement had said.

Under Sisodia's direction , the first phase includes addition of 8,000 new classrooms.

Officials informed that the Education department's target is to finish work for these 8,000 classrooms in two years.

In the second phase, the government will sanction 10,000 new classrooms, which are in the making now.

The AAP-led government has dubbed it "Delhi's biggest ever education infrastructure expansion project".