Over 60 lakh parents awaiting funds to purchase uniforms for their school-going children

The much-hyped claims of the Yogi Government that parents would directly get Rs 1100 to purchase uniforms including sweaters and shoes for their school-going wards has fallen flat as over 60 lakh parents are still waiting for the direct transfer of the money for the last one month.

On October 30, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath declared that Rs 1800 crore will be transferred through DBT in the bank accounts of parents of more than 1.60 crore students for the purchase of uniforms. He claimed that this scheme will benefit students of primary, upper primary schools, and non-government aided primary / pre-secondary schools.

“A parent would get Rs 1100 per child and the payments would be made within a month’s time,” CM declared while releasing funds through the click of the mouse.

One month later, officials of the education department claim that over 60 lakh parents are yet to get the money. The whole process is delayed because of the delay in the confirmation of the bank details of parents with the details available with the school.

“Who will do it?” asks a leader of the Shiksha Parishad. “The teachers and officers of the education department are deployed in the revision of the electoral roll. There is no one in school to carry out the clerical work of confirming the bank details of the parents,” the leader said.

Officials say that the first lot of money was transferred to the accounts of over 1 Crore parents but over 60 lakh parents are still waiting for the funds to purchase uniforms, sweaters, shoes, and school bags.

Another employees’ union leader said that the argument given by the official was that the direct transfer of money will ensure a transparent system as well as develop a market at the local level which in turn will generate self-employment opportunities in rural areas.

“The winter has already set in. The delay in transfer of money will lead to delay in purchase of sweaters and till then the poor students will bear the brunt of the winter,” he said.

Principal Secretary Deepak Kumar said that this money should have been transferred within a month’s time. “I need to enquire as where the whole process has got stuck,” he said.