A whopping amount of Rs15 crore is lying unused by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation as they have failed to open bank account of primary school students for disbursing the “pre-merit scholarships” belonging to weaker sections. While the MCD has always been at loggerheads with the Delhi Government demanding funds from the latter, it has come out that it has not been able to open bank accounts of the poor students on the pretext that most students are orphans.

According to the MCD, the bank accounts are opened in the name of the student’s parents, therefore debarring the orphan students from availing the benefits. The civic agency releases money in bank accounts of the beneficiaries but only 20 per cent children were able to avail the facility till date.

Since 2009, Delhi Government releases more than Rs 15 crore per year to the SDMC for pre-merit scholarships, free supply of books and stationeries for SC/ST, OBC and minorities students enrolled in the Corporation schools.

A data released by the SDMC has revealed that out of Rs20 crore released by the State Governemnt in FY 2012-13 a total of Rs3.27 crore is still unused. The Corporation officials confessed that similar amounts of every year might be lying unused in absence of bank accounts of the poor students which estimates over Rs15 core.

What was worse was that allocation of FY 2015-16 might be postponed by the city government as the civic agency has still not prepared detailed plan of expenditure which is to be submitted to the Government before September 20 for fund release.

“It is true the Corporation is not able to provide benefits to children ever after receiving money from the Delhi government. As these money go directly in bank accounts, emphasis should be to open account of every children. Presently there are 20 per cent, 50,000 in numbers, children who are being deprived from the benefit of government scheme,” revealed a senior official.

The Opposition has demanded a detailed enquiry. “Officials are claiming that accounts of 50,000 students were not opened as they are orphans while the fact is that there are hardly 5,000 orphans enrolled in Corporation schools and even there are certain provision for opening their accounts,” said Farhad Suri, leader of Opposition on the SDMC.