The Delhi Government will take over the management of Bal Bharti School situated in Rohini for "failing" to comply with orders to withdraw the "arbitrarily" increased fees by the school.
"The Government had issued orders several times to withdraw the arbitrarily increased fees by the school, but the school management has failed every time to comply with these orders," office of the Deputy Chief Minister said in a statement.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had approved the proposal and sent to the Lieutenant Governor which has now been approved. Sisodia assured parents that the Kejriwal government will not allow schools to increase fees arbitrarily. “If any school does this then strict action will be taken against them”, said Sisodia.
The Directorate of Education (DoE) had conducted an in-depth inspection of the financial statements of Bal Bharti School for the financial years 2016-2017 to 2017-2018. During the detailed inspection of the records, the DoE found that the total funds with the school for the year 2017-2018 were 23,81,82,958, it said.
"Out of this amount, Rs 20,94,38,802 was estimated to be spent. Even after spending Rs 20,94,38,802, the school management had a net surplus of about Rs 2,87,44,156. After this, the DoE came to the conclusion that there is no need for the school management to increase the fees," he said.
In this regard, the directorate refused to accept the fee hike proposed by the school for the academic session 2017-2018, it said.
"Apart from this, the school increased fees in 2017-18 had to be adjusted further. But in the meantime, the Delhi government again received complaints from the parents that the school had increased the fees several times in 2018-19 and 2019-20, and further also asked to deposit arrears," it added.
Consequently, the DoE issued a notice to the school on May 10, 2019 asking why the recognition of the school should not be canceled and the reply received by the school was not satisfactory, it said.