‘Ensure timely provision of textbooks to children and salaries to teachers’

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has directed the Urban Development (UD) department to ensure timely provision of textbooks and salaries at municipal schools to students and teachers respectively, failing which they should be taken over and administered by the Directorate of Education (DoE) under the Delhi government, sources said.

Letter to Principal Secy

They also said Mr. Sisodia had written to the Principal Secretary of the UD department, who is also the Director (Local Bodies), on the basis of a complaint alleging that schools run by the municipal corporations and especially the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, were yet to distribute textbooks to their students despite five months of the current academic year having lapsed.

The government had disbursed an amount of ₹853 crore for primary education to the three civic bodies of which ₹393.3 crore had been provided to the North body, the Minister said.

According to the complaint, this amount was yet to be utilised for the provision of textbooks to students and to ensure timely salaries for teachers.

Action sought from dept.

The Deputy Chief Minister has also sought an action taken report from the department.

The step, Mr. Sisodia had argued, would be in the interests of both students and teachers at such schools if civic bodies were “unable to perform their primary duty” in this regard.