RTE violations: SC panel says state insensitive; seeks report

NABHA : Saying that it had not received an action taken report on previous letters it had written to the state education department, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes wrote another letter to principal secretary, education, Punjab, on Friday, questioning ‘the insensitivity’ of the department.

On February 16, the commission had pulled up the state over ‘the poor implementation’ of Right to Education Act, 2009, and raised concern on whether the EWS and reserved categories were being given their due.

Under the law, students from these sections are eligible for free and compulsory education in neighbourhood private unaided schools under the 25% reserved quota.

In Friday’s letter, the commission has warned the department that it could exercise powers of civil courts conferred to it under Article 338 of the Constitution and may even summon the principal secretary, if it fails to submit an action taken report in time.

Regional director of the commission, Raj Kumar Chhanena, said the panel had now fixed April 10 as the deadline for the department to report on the issue of the RTE implementation, which he said affects lakhs of students in the state.

“The session has already begun. Yet, the commission has received no action taken report from the department, Chhanena added.

Claiming that Punjab was performing the worst as compared to its neighboring states in the implementation of the Act, it had said that no admission under the aforesaid clause was given in the state and two parents from Nabha had to approach high court for admission in local Dayanand Public School, Nabha.

The commission had asked the department to take quick action to implement the act in its letter and spirit as the new session was about to begin.