Delhi: Comply with SC order or be ready to face action, Sisodia warns pvt schools
Manish Sisodia welcomes a Supreme Court order asking private schools built on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land to obtain prior approval from the government to raise fees.If schools don’t follow rules, government has tools to take strict action against them, he says.
Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia welcomed a Supreme Court order asking private schools built on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land to obtain prior approval from the government to raise fees.
Sisodia, also the education minister, warned that the government will take strict action against schools that don’t comply with the SC order.
“We don’t have a personal enmity with private schools, and are not against them either. The government just wants to keep their (schools’) fee and admission process transparent,” he said.
He said private schools cannot harass parents in the name of fee and asserted that despite the SC’s order, if schools don’t follow rules, government has several tools to take strict action against them.
Sisodia said the government has set a process for fee hike and got the finances of schools audited by government-appointed charted accountants. “Out of 450 private schools, only 162 schools applied for fee hike. Around 28 schools backed out because they understood they will be caught,” he said.
He said most schools were found to have surplus money and some even had Rs 5-crore surplus. “Why are you charging so much if you have surplus money? We are not closing your schools or disturbing your functioning. We are only saying why charge so much money. We want to make the fee and admission process transparent,” he said.
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He said schools who were allotted land by the government on certain conditions will have to follow the rules. “If private schools think they can take land worth crores of rupees from the government, and not follow terms and conditions given in the allotment letters, we will not allow that to happen,” he said.
He said the government did not give the private schools land to earn money.
“If you (schools) support us, the government will also support you, but if you continue with irregularities, the government will not support,” he added.