The Delhi government has proposed amendments in the Education Act, under which the erring schools asking for capitation fees will be liable for a hefty fine 10 times the donation and the “repeated offende-rs” may even face impriso-nment. The schools will ha-ve to show greater accountability in fees accepted and money spent under the new Delhi Schools Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee Bill, which will be tabled in the Winter session of the Delhi Assembly. Erring schools may attract hefty fine and repeated offenders may even be imprisoned for 3-5 years.
“It has been observed that several schools charge exorbitant fees and siphon it off for other purposes, say by giving loans to some trust at zero per cent interest or produce fake bills. This will now be looked by a committee headed by retired judge. The committee will also empanel some 400-500 chartered accountants who will go through the accounts of the schools. If they find any irregularity, they can direct the school to either refund the money or reduce the fees the next year,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said.
He said while the government favoured auditing of accounts which can put an end to the siphoning of the money, it did not want to “interfere” in amount spent by the school.
