By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mumbai: A Suo Moto Public Interest Litigation was filed by Khan Razaullah Hidayatullah (39), President of Maharashtra State Minorities Schools Principals’ on the matter of state funding under Pre-matric scholarship scheme in the High Court of Judicature of Bombay where Registrar General, High Court Judicature of Bombay is the Petitioner and State of Maharashtra, Prinicpal Secretary Finance Department Maharashtra and the Secretary to the Government of Maharashtra, Minorities Development Department and Director of Education are respondents.
In his PIL dated 29th November, 2013, he referred to an RTI application he filed on 01.03.11 in which he sought information regarding the implementation of the said scheme for the children belonging to minority communities for the year 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. The information sought pertained to the number of applicants made by students, number of beneficiaries and the number of applications rejected.
“The Directorate of Education, Secondary and Higher Secondary replied to my RTI, stating that for the year 2009-2010, a total of 2,01,490, beneficiaries were selected for the State of Maharashtra but the scholarship amounts were deposited only for only 1,64,777 students from April 2009 to March 2010 though Rs. 2,166,41,000 was sanctioned for Pre-matric Scholarship, only Rs. 19,06,92,306 amount was distributed,” reads the contents of the letter in the affidavit sent by the Directorate of Education dated 11.03.2011.
Similarly, the reply from the Directorate of Education states, “from April 2010 to March 2011 out of the sanctioned fund of Rs. 14,81,00,000 only 12,98,06,327 funds were distributed. In his reply back to the Directorate of Education Hidayatullah’s advocate Gayatri Singh, in his letter dated 20.4.2011 stated that the undistributed amounts had not yet reached the students who were thus unable to purchase educational sets which was affecting their studies.
To this letter the Directorate of Education further replied in a letter dated 13.05.2011 stating that scholarship funds have not yet been deposited in the accounts of the students and the Department was still processing the forms.
Also when he sought information regarding funding for scholarships in higher education in a letter dated 04.08.2011 no details were furnished except for providing information regarding total number of beneficiaries in the year 2010-2011.
A similar enquiry was made by him as he sought information regarding the distribution of funds from Directorate of Technical regarding the scholarships to minorities for the period of August 2002 to September 2013 where in Directorate of Technical Education replied in a letter dated .07.10.2013 giving him insufficient replies.
“It is evident from the chart prepared by the said Directorate that there are substantial discrepancies in the applications received and the applications accepted and the funds received by the Directorate and funds where actually distributed to eligible students are. The excess undistributed funds are lying with the bank,” reads the page 4 of the PIL.
The PIL quotes Hidayatullah regarding the excess of unspent money lying in the bank, “I have now received information that there is an outstanding credit in the accounts of the Directorate of Technical Education of an amount of Rs. 9,79,45,797 lying with State Bank of India as on 30.09.2013.”
“I therefore say that the various schemes under the minority development department are not being operated efficiently and the said schemes are not reaching the beneficiaries,” the PIL quotes Hidayatullah.