BENGALURU: Educational institutions have complained, in the last two years, nearly Rs 1,700 crore of RTE reimbursement to private schools have been pending from the state government. In October 2019, a government order said Rs 125 crore was to be released for the same but despite that schools say they have not received the amount.
Each year, the government allots Rs 500 crore towards RTE reimbursement.Shashi Kumar D, general secretary of Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka said, in 2018-2019, an expenditure of Rs 900 crore was incurred by private schools. Only Rs 200 crore of Rs 500 crore, was sent by the state government.
“Due to negligence of officials, the Rs 200 crore was released late and the remaining Rs 300 crore was taken back. As per the finance department rules, 85 percent of the Rs 200 crore released should be spent before asking for the remaining amount. As this was not done in time, the remaining money was taken back,” Kumar said.
This year (2019-2020), Rs 125 crore and Rs 250 crore was released in installments, which is the amount meant for last year’s RTE seats, he added.
“The remaining Rs 125 crore was to be released as per a government order in October but that has not reached us owing to the government’s inaction. If they do not spend it by the end of this month, we will not be able to ask for more money from the finance department. The total amount they owe to private schools is Rs 1,700 crore,”he shared.
Neither Principal Secretary of Department of Primary and Secondary Education Umashankar nor Department of Public Instruction Commissioner Dr K G Jagadeesh were able to clarify on why the amount was held up.Another DPI official said the money would be disbursed in a day or two.