RTI reveals funds for attendance allowance for girls goes unaccounted
26 Jun, 2013Maharashtra government had initiated Attendance Allowance Scheme for girls in 1992 in order to check their high dropout rate from primary schools. Under the scheme, each girl, studying from Class I to IV, had to attend school for 220 working days and in turn her parents were to be given an allowance of Re 1 so as to encourage them to send their wards to school.
However, the reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that the Directorate of Primary Education doesn’t have any documents to account for the funds worth crores of rupees released as attendance allowance to girls because the Zilla Parishads (ZPs) and Nagar palikas (NPs) haven’t submitted any expenditure statements. The RTI reply states that the Directorate of Primary Education had released over Rs. 14 crore to the ZPs and NPs under planned scheme and over Rs. 11 crore under non-planned scheme during the period between 2008 and 2011.
But the department is yet to receive Utilization Certificates (UCs) for grants released in 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 without which the department cannot ascertain whether the funds are being utilized for the designated purpose.