Gulbarga South BEO Accused of Violating Right to Education Act

An incident of the Block Education Officer (BEO) of Gulbarga (South) violating the Right to Education (RTE) Act has come to light.

An incident of the Block Education Officer (BEO) of Gulbarga (South) violating the Right to Education (RTE) Act has come to light.

Official sources told Express that the residents of Vidya Nagar, Ramnagar and Kirti Nagar in Gulbarga city sent a complaint to the Education Minister in February alleging that though their children were eligible under the RTE Act, they were denied admission to LKG in the prestigious SBR Primary School in Gulbarga.

Responding to this, the Education Minister issued a directive to the office of the Commissionerate of Public Instruction, Gulbarga, to inquire into the matter. The Deputy Director of Public Instructions (DDPI) visited SBR Primary School on April 3. He found that a total of 1,324 applications, including 935 from people belonging to backward class, 359 from SC category and 30 from ST community were received by the school under the RTE.

To select 110 students, the headmaster had to prepare a file containing the details of the ward in which his school falls and names of the students seeking admission.

The parents had to attach their residential address proof and income proof along with the applications.

After verifying all the documents, the headmaster sent the list of the selected children to BEO Dattappa Talwar for approval. Talwar, however, changed the list and released the new list without mentioning the date. 

The DDPI during his inspection, found that the list released by the BEO stated that 52 children belonging to Ward No 41, where the school is located, were granted admission and the remaining children from other wards were selected following lottery system.

However, in a probe it was found that only 20 children in the BEO's list were from Ward No 41.

The Gulbarga DDPI in his report stated that this amounts to violation of RTE Act and BEO Talwar, nodal officer S Dodmani and CRC of the BEO's office Chandrashekhar Hagargundgi prepared the list without following the guidelines and norms.

Additional Commissioner Radhakrishna Madankar said he has forwarded the report to the government recommending action against the erring officials.

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