On the backfoot after a controversial form was circulated among school students seeking their personal details, the Haryana government on Wednesday defended its decision, saying it was done for the benefit of the students.
"The school admission form is intended to ensure that every student in every school of Haryana is enabled to receive full benefit of every scheme of the Central and Haryana governments and directly in her account in case such benefit is monetary," an official spokesman said.
The Department of School Education clarified that no new term has been coined in the form by the present Haryana government.
On the use of a particular adjective (unclean occupation) with the vocation of parents, he said the said term has been a part of a scheme of pre-Matric Scholarship of the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry of the Central government since 2009.
About bank account details of students, the spokesman said the Department would send all amounts of cash grants and scholarships directly in this account.
He said it was surprising that parents could object to disclosing their annual income when practically all scholarship schemes have an income ceiling.
The spokesman clarified that Aadhaar number of students seeking admission was not mandatory and that certain quarters were objecting to the information sought due to "petty mindedness".
--IANS
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