Mumbai: The Director of Technical Education (DTE) has assigned joint directors to gather information on unclaimed deposits from all colleges under its supervision. There are around 1800 colleges under the Department of Technical Education Maharashtra, out of which the department has data of 126 colleges across the state.
This instruction was issued in reaction to the large amounts of unclaimed funds that have been lying inactive in Maharashtra's government polytechnic and aided, unaided, and private technical colleges' accounts.
"Institutions in your department should check the balance of the deposit and submit a report to the Directorate. Students should also be informed about the action taken by their subordinate institutions regarding the non-refundable deposit and submit their feedback to the Directorate immediately in connection with the above statement," mentions the instruction issued by the Joint Director of Technical Education, Maharashtra Mumbai, Pramod Naik.
The joint directors should also prepare and submit a report to the director's office on refundable caution money, laboratory fees, and library fees received over time. He has asked the Divisional Joint Directors of Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati, and Nagpur to provide immediate feedback to the Directorate of Feedback on their subordinate institutions' actions regarding non-refundable deposits.
Incidentally, The Free Press Journal had reported about the unclaimed refundable deposit of colleges under the Higher Education on April 18. Meanwhile, unclaimed funds should be utilised to provide financial aid to students from an economically backward class (EBC) to guarantee that they do not lose out on vocational education owing to a lack of funding, according to the students' association. "Our only demand is that the information of unclaimed money utilised by the colleges be provided, and 30% of it should be used for the welfare of the economically backward class students for financial assistance such as hostel, mess fee, educational materials, medical facilities," said Amar Ekad, President of the student wing COPS association.
Students are asked to deposit a certain amount in the colleges during the admissions process, which is considered a refundable deposit. The college must refund the money to the students after the course is completed. Many students across the state do not claim their money, and the deposit is kept by the college. If the refundable amount is not collected within three years, it becomes an unclaimed deposit.
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