Bombay HC directs govt for fir against NGO

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has directed the state government to register a FIR against 27 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for siphoning off money that was allocated to construct hostels for adivasis and handicapped students under the central government scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The high court, in its recent order, directed the state to initiate the money recovery process from the said NGOs and prohibited the state government from releasing any further funds to them. A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nadrajog and Justice N.M. Jamdar was hearing a PIL filed by the Forum for Fairness in Education, a Mumbai-based organisation, claiming that there was misappropriation of funds allocated for adivasi students in Jawhar taluka of Thane district. The petition stated that in 2002, the central government had started the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the aim of which was to provide all assistance to poor and adivasi students so that none of the children in the country would be deprived of basic education. The scheme also aimed at constructing hostels for students residing in remote areas.