Deadline looms, Haryana education dept yet to submit data on EWS students

The letter, sent by the DTCP last Friday, stated that the education department had violated the guidelines concerning the free education to EWS/BPL category students, by failing to submit the required certificate.

The district town and country planning department (DTCP) has issued a notice to the district education officer (DEO) for failing to provide details of students admitted under the EWS category in schools that have been granted permission to change land use.

The letter, sent by the DTCP last Friday, stated that the education department had violated the guidelines concerning the free education to EWS/BPL category students (HT FILE)

As per a 2014 policy of the DTCP, educational institutions that have been granted a change of land use permission need to provide free education to EWS students and maintain a record of the students. The DEO is required to submit a certificate, as proof of implementation of the policy, after verification of the record.

The letter, sent by the DTCP last Friday, stated that the education department had violated the guidelines concerning the free education to EWS/BPL category students, by failing to submit the required certificate. It was asked to furnish the certificate within a week, failing which, higher authorities would be apprised to take disciplinary action against the school. HT has a copy of the letter.

However, officials of the education department are yet to respond to the notice. District education officer, Premlata Yadav, said that the department had received the notice late and it would need time to collect data from block education officers before issuing the certificate.

“We received the letter only recently and the department will assess the information sought. The block education officers of different districts will be asked to share details about the schools that are operating through this arrangement,” said Yadav.

A senior town planner said that the DTCP would wait for the education department to respond if it needed more time to respond to the notice. “We have sent a notice to the department and have asked them to furnish their response at the earliest. While we have not received any report from them so far, we will wait for the department to get back to us before we decide on the next course of action,” the officer said.