Defaulting schools to get MCD notices

In an effort at bringing in increased parity, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Tuesday decided to send showcause notices to those elite schools that are violating norms in filling the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota.

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD's) education committee chairman Mahender Nagpal said they have identified 19 city schools and gathered specific data for some of them.

"The information for the rest of the schools (out of these 19) would come in by next Tuesday, after which, we would send showcause notices to violators of the EWS quota," Nagpal added.

All those schools that have received land at concessional rates (just Rs 1 per sq metres) from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) need to comply with the government's mandatory order of reserving 20% seats for students from the economically weaker sections.

According to Nagpal, primary education is the purview of the civic body and it can exercise its right to recognise or de-recognise any primary schools for any kind of violations.

The decision to send showcause notices was taken during the Education Committee's weekly meeting, which took up the agenda following complaints from parents of students belonging to the EWS.

There are approximately 100 other schools that have received land on concession rates.

The civic body has started a survey of these schools.

As per the statutory regulation of January 25, 2007, it has been made mandatory by the government that schools that have been built on the public land and allotted land at throwaway prices are obliged to provide admission to the extent of 20% for students belonging to the economically-weaker sections.