PRESS
RELEASE
23.11.2015
Thousands
of common man have gathered today at Dilli Vidhan Sabha under the banner of All
India Parents Association (AIPA) to register their protest against the proposed
(i) amendment in Delhi School Education Act, 1973 deleting Section 10(1)
thereof, thereby taking away the right to pay parity of all employees of
recognized private schools guaranteed to them by Section 10(1) of the Act and
(ii) enactment of Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess
Fee) Bill, 2015 that instead of controlling arbitrary fee hike by unaided
private schools, it gives absolute powers to such schools to loot the hapless
parents/students, in whatever way they like.
Pay Parity of teaching and non- teaching staff of recognised private
schools:
The proposed Amendments completely takes away
the right to pay parity of all the employees of recognised private schools
guaranteed to such employees by Section 10(1) of DSE Act, 1973 that mandates
that pay and others benefits of the employees of a recognised private school
shall not be less than those paid to their counter parts working in Government
schools. It is submitted that on the basis of this provision of law, all
employees of recognised private schools are legally entitled to claim benefits
under Central Pay Commissions revised from time to time. If this proposed
amendment is passed, no employee would be entitled to claim benefits of pay and
emoluments under 7th Pay Commission that will come into force with effect from
01.01.2016. It is submitted that 42 years old provision that was achieved by
the workers after a long struggle has been taken away by the AAP Govt in one
stroke through proposed amendment Bill. People of Delhi have voted Kejriwal
party for protection of the workers rights and not to snatch them and that too
in the manner it is being done. It is submitted that during the regime of BJP
and Congress party Governments in the past, even they did not ever thought of
or attempted to take away such a valuable right of equal pay and dignified
livelihood. Apparently, this has been done at the behest of the private
school managements lobby to benefit them. Is Govt not adopting double
standards? One for its own employees and other for the employees of the
recognised private schools. Have they ever sought views of the people at large
and of the employees particularly before proposing such amendment? Is it not
cheating on the part of Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. Why Govt throughout concealed it
from public? No one knew about it till 21.11.2015 evening when I suddenly heard
about it from some source and sent the following message to Mr. Arvind Kejriwal
on the night of 15.11.2015 at 21.11 hours:
" Dear Arvind ji, I have heard that AAP
Govt is contemplating to delete Section 10 (1) of Delhi School Education
Act,1973 that guarantees all employees of recognised private schools to get the
benefit of Central Pay Commissions. Please don't do it. If it is done, you will
have to face great protest from the people of Delhi. Regards, ashok agarwal"
Next following message to Mr. Arvind Kejriwal
was sent on 18.11.2015 at 04.00 hours:
" Kejriwal attacks on workers rights -
All the Delhi Teachers must seriously oppose Kejriwal Govt move to drop S.10 of
DSEA, 1973 that entitles all employees of private recognised schools to get pay
and other benefits at par with their counter parts working in Delhi Govt
schools. Dropping of S. 10 would make the employees of Delhi private
schools further venerable. Govt move would also adversely affect the standard
of education in private schools. Let parents & teachers unite to wage
struggle against this exploitative move of AAP led Delhi Govt. Adv
Ashok Agarwal M-09811101923"
At 7.25 hrs on 18.11.2015, the following
message was sent to Mr. Arvind Kejriwal:
" Dropping of S.10 from DSE Act, 1973 is
neither in favour of parents nor in favour of teachers but only serves the
greedy school managements."
The following is the next message sent to Mr.
Arvind Kejriwal on 19.11.2015 at 1.50 hours:
" Arvind Kejriwal has played a cruel
fraud with thousands of innocent teachers and other staff of recognised
private schools by snatching from them the right to pay parity with their
counter parts working in Delhi Govt schools which is in existence for the last
42 years. "
The last message sent to Mr. Arvind Kejriwal
on 19.11.2015 at 2.14 hours is as under:
" AlPA calls upon Delhi CM Arvind
Kejriwal to withdraw anti workers Clause of the Bill deleting Section 10 (1) of
DSE Act, 1973."
It is submitted that despite receiving all
these messages, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal did not reply at all.
Checking menace of exorbitant fee
hike every year by unaided private schools:
As far as the Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill,
2015 is concerned, it fails
to cater to the mischief of exorbitant and unjustified fee-hike for the
followings amongs other reasons:-
Firstly, it presupposes that fee-hike by the private
schools is per-se legal and valid, unless the same is challenged through a
complaint and is set aside by the committee. If we look at the existing Acts on
private unaided school-fee regulation, particularly the Tamil Nadu (Regulation
of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009, there is a stipulation of prior approval by
the Committee before fee-hike and the said hiked fee, once approved, cannot be
further hiked upto three years. While here, this Bill has put the entire burden
upon the complainant. It is expected that the Delhi’s Act should be advancement
over Tamil Nadu Act and should surpass the benchmark set by Tamil Nadu, but
this Bill falls way short of even what Tamil Nadu has already achieved.
Secondly, this Bill suffers from various practical
anomalies. The burden has been cast upon the aggrieved parent to move in
complaint. This onerous task would make the parent, and ultimately the child,
amenable to be subjected to victimization. Further, once a complaint is made,
no time-limit has been stipulated for disposal of the same by the committee,
making it liable to be reduced to futility by sheer lapse of time. Even after a
complaint has been decided, there is enough room for delay as the school can
file objections, and even after consideration of the same and final decision by
the committee, there is a provision of appeal to the Director, for
disposal of which, no time-limit has been stipulated. The school shall thus
continue to enjoy its free hand at least throughout the process which has
enough scope for inordinate delays. Needless to say that it would not be an
easy task for any parent to make complaints because they need a minimum support
of parents of 20 students to maintain the same. The committee itself is a
rather weak one compared to the Tamil Nadu model where a retired judge of the
High Court heads the Committee.
It is needless to mention here that the Hon’ble Delhi
High Court in its decision dated 12.08.2011 in Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh &
ors. vs. GNCTD & ors. [W.P.
(C) No.7777/2009] had constituted Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee to look into
the accounts of each school and find out whether the fee-hike by private
unaided schools on the pretext of 6th Central Pay Commission was justified.
The High Court had further directed that if the fee-hike was found to be
unjustified, it would be refunded by the school to parents along with 9%
interest. Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee has so far indicted more than 450
schools and the refundable amounts cumulatively come to more than Rs.250
crores. However, till date, not a single school has refunded the due amounts to
the parents.
Even in 1997, when the parents had approached High Court
against fee-hike on the pretext of implementation of 5th CPC, the High Court vide an interim
Order had permitted the schools to increase fee by upto 40%, resulting in
recovery of over Rs.400 crores from the parents of Delhi, which was to be
subject to the findings of Justice Santosh Duggal Committee and liable to be
refunded if found unjustified. However, the working of the Committee was
deliberately stifled by the Directorate of Education and the
private schools, with the result that till date no amount has been refunded to
the hapless parents. Thus, it is our experience that once a school charges fee
from the parents, it becomes next to impossible to get it refunded.
In
terms of Section 3 of the Bill, the committee can be headed by a bureaucrat
which parents strongly feel that the same would be a very weak committee.
The
proposed Bill everywhere talks of utilization of funds in accordance with the
provision of Delhi School Education Act, 1973. This is not the real issue. The real issue is of charging of exorbitant
fee itself. The reference of Delhi School Education Act in the Bill is also
irrelevant and misleading as in 1973 when DSEA was enacted, no one visualized
the problem of arbitrary fee hike by the private schools.
The
proposed Bill also does not talk of ascertaining/determination justifiability
of fee charged. It really does not safeguard the interest of the parents at
all. If one goes in terms of this Bill, a complaint, if any, by a parents can
only be filed after at least 18 months from the date such fee is charged from
them. It is interesting to note that the parent can not file a complaint or
raise a grievance, the moment, the fee arbitrary increased by a school. He has
to wait till the audited accounts are finalised by a school, and he cannot have
a complaint beyond the limited issue of utilization of funds. The Bill in other
words, allows the greedy private schools to loot the hapless parents in
whatever way, they like.
Suppose
through proposed fee structure a school has increased tuition fee by 25% for
the next year i.e 2016-17 and you are aggrieved of that. Can you maintain a
complaint before the committee saying that the fee demanded by me is unjustified
and the school should be stopped from charging it? Answer is No.
You
have to wait for a more than a year to make a complaint because you have to see
if the fee charged from you is utilized or not and if it is utilized, whether
utilized in accordance with the DSEA Act. According to the provisions of this
Bill, parent cannot make complaint of arbitrary fee hike when it is proposed or
charged. They have to wait full year to see that what is charged from them is
utilized or not utilized and if utilized, whether utilized is violation of DSEA
Act and Rules and in case, it is not utilized, whether it would amount to
excess fee charge and become refundable.
Why
committee needs a complaint from the parents?
The committee is expected to act as a complaint itself and ensure that
fee proposed or charged must be justified. The present Bill does not give such
teeth to the committee and the entire Bill is no less a paper tiger.
In
nutshell, the proposed Bill is totally bogus one and does not at all address
the issue of arbitrary, exorbitant and unjustified fee hike.
AAP
Government is just making fool of common man. Hence the present protest.
Ashok Agarwal, Advocate
National President, AIPA
M: 9811101923
Tel. 011-23070026
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