Schools with bogus students to face music

Mumbai: The state government will take criminal acti-on against schools that have bogus students wi-thin a couple of months, education minister Vinod Tawde told the state Legislative Assembly on Friday.

With the help of SARAL system, information of all students has been linked to the Aadhar card in all schools in the state. Hence there is not much scope left for manipulation in the students’ enrolment, he added.

The BJP MLA Ashish Shelar had raised the issue of schools that have bogus students. Replying to him, Mr Tawde said that in the year 2011 a special enrolment inspection drive was held in which 50 per cent less students were found in 1,004 schools across the state. Accordingly, the state government had started taking action against them.

However, some of these schools went to the court against the move due to which the court sought some explanations from the state government. Following this, the government again started taking action and registered criminal offences against 11 schools. As these schools again moved the court, the court asked the government to implement the process of natural justice.