No bank accounts yet, Corporation school students left in the lurch by SDMC

The Corporation, which is always demanding financial assistance from the city government under various heads, claims that they cannot open the accounts as a majority of the students are orphans. The opposition, however, suspect foul play. 

The Delhi government, since financial year 2009-10, has released more than Rs 15 crore per year to the SDMC for pre-merit scholarships, free supply of books and <g data-gr-id="20">stationeries</g> for SC/ST, OBC and minorities students enrolled in the Corporation schools. The civic agency, which is entitled to disburse the money in these overheads, releases funds in bank accounts of the beneficiaries but above 20 per cent children are not able to avail the facility as their accounts are yet to be opened.  

A data provided by the SDMC has revealed that out of Rs 20 crore released by the state government in FY 2012-13, a total of Rs 3.27 crore is still lying unused. The Corporation officials confessed that similar amounts given out every year might be lying unused in the absence of bank accounts of the poor students which is estimated to shoot above Rs 15 crore. What is worse is the allocation of funds in FY 2015-16 may be postponed by the city government as the civic agency has still not prepared a detailed plan of expenditure to be submitted to the government before September 20 for release of funds. 

“It is true that the Corporation is not able to provide benefits to children even after receiving money from the Delhi government. As this amount directly goes to the bank accounts, emphasis should be laid to open accounts of every <g data-gr-id="30">children</g>. Presently there are 20 per cent students, numbering around 50,000, who are being <g data-gr-id="27">deprived from</g> the benefit of the government’s scheme,” revealed a senior official. 

Suspecting foul play, the Opposition has demanded a detailed inquiry, claiming that there must be a scam behind not opening the bank accounts of more than 20 <g data-gr-id="31">per cent</g> students. “Officials are claiming that accounts of 50,000 students have not been opened as they are orphans while the fact is there are hardly 5,000 orphans enrolled in Corporation schools and even there are provisions for opening their accounts,” said Farhad Suri, SDMC’s Leader of Opposition.