Infight cloud on school cash - Stuck: Around Rs 100cr for education infrastructure

Mita Mukherjee, TT, Calcutta, Feb. 11: The state government has failed to disburse Rs 100 crore in central funds to many schools as Trinamul infighting over deployment of loyalists has stalled the process of forming managing committees, the highest decision-making bodies of the institutions.

The Narendra Modi government issued the first tranche of funds under the new Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Mission (RMSA) for the improvement of infrastructure of state government-run secondary schools three months ago. But only 287 of the 12,000-odd government-sponsored schools have got the funds so far.

In order to be eligible for grants under the RMSA, the managing committees of the government schools would have to be reconstituted in keeping with the provisions of the Right to Education Act.

"The government has not been able to reconstitute the managing committee of most schools because of pressure from local leaders of the ruling party to nominate people of their choice. We have not been able to finalise the names of managing committee members in most schools as different groups of Trinamul leaders are making different recommendations," an official said.

According to him, multiple names are being suggested for the post of managing committee president and the two government nominees. "It is clear that the leaders want their yes-men as managing committees members. In the absence of any unanimity among the leaders, the process of constituting the committees is getting delayed," the official said.

In East Midnapore, Nadia, North 24-Parganas, Hooghly and Howrah, the infighting is so intense that the government was forced to withdraw the names it had recommended for the post of president in several hundred schools.

Ideally, the state government is not supposed to be guided by any political party while selecting the president. But the school education department had initially relied on local Trinamul MPs, MLAs and councillors for coming up with names of probable candidates.

"This did not work. There was such immense pressure from rival camps that we had to withdraw the names in many cases," an education department source said.

The genesis of the stalemate while constituting managing committees can be traced back to the Left era, when the Front had mastered the art of putting loyalists in the decision-making bodies of schools and colleges.

A source in a school in East Midnapore said the new managing committee had been constituted after receiving nominations from the state government, but the administration ordered the dissolution of the panel because of opposition from warring Trinamul groups. The old managing committee had to be restored, making the school ineligible for the RMSA grant.

"There is only one reason for the scramble to deploy loyalist in managing committees - to have a say in spending," said the headmaster of a school in North 24-Parganas.

Education minister Partha Chatterjee, however, said the government had already started the process of disbursing the funds and 287 schools had received them.

"We have started disbursing funds to the schools where the managing committees have been reconstituted. As many as 287 schools have been given the funds so far," he said.

Asked about the problems being faced by the schools in reconstituting the managing committees because of infighting, the minister said he was not aware of such issues.

Under the RMSA, each school will initially receive an annual grant of Rs 50,000 along with funds for paying electricity, water and telephone bills. In addition, the schools will get an annual grant of Rs 25,000 for minor repairs. The funds are expected to increase gradually in the following years.

In a bid to get the funds, the Trinamul government has already allowed nearly 8,000 state-aided schools to convert to government-sponsored ones.

"But the infighting has come in the way of infrastructure development. Students are paying the price for the impasse," an education department source said.