In a relief to students and their parents, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided that all private schools in the state will now come under the purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI).
It is now mandatory for schools to provide the information sought under the Act, bringing relief to those who are forced to run from pillar to post for getting information from unaided, privately managed schools.
The State Information Commission (SIC) has given this ruling and state information commissioner, Pramod Kumar Tiwari, in his order, sought appointment of public information officers in private schools.
The matter of unaided private schools being under the purview of the RTI Act had been a matter of debate for quite some time.
Following an appeal filed by one Sanjay Sharma in respect to two reputed private schools of Lucknow, the SIC asked the chief secretary to instruct private school administrators to appoint officers to facilitate people to get information under the RTI Act, 2005.
Private schools did not provide information under RTI on the grounds that they were not funded by the state and were outside the purview of the Act.
However, the Supreme Court had ruled that if the development authority of a city provides land to a private school at concessional rates, the school will be considered adequately funded by the state.
The SIC also propounded that the district education officer is bound to give all the information mentioned in the form to the petitioner on demand.
(With IANS inputs)