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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, February 18: Left with only loose change jangling in its coffers, the civic authorities are now looking to raise revenue from the field of education, hitherto considered a relatively low-priority area.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC has therefore invited educational trusts to construct and run schools on the 600 plots reserved for educational purposes in the city despite the fact that half the plots are encroached upon.
Trusts which respond to the proposal will be free to decide the medium of instruction, subject to certain conditions. While the medium can be either Hindi, Marathi, English or any other regional language, classes cannot beconducted in English alone. Also, the medium of instruction will be subject to the approval of the education officer, who will consider the composition of the locality in which the institution is located.
At today8217;s meeting, Shiv Sena corporator Hareshwar Patil suggested that 30 per cent of the seats should be reserved for students recommended by the local corporator. However, Joint Municipal Commissioner Ajay Mehta rejected this outright, saying the BMC will not enjoy such rights as long as the educational trust honours the terms of the agreement.
Another corporator said the board of trustees should comprise at least one corporator but this suggestion was jettisoned by Kandarkar. 8220;There is every possibility that some corporators will misuse their powers. Some might even demand donations from the students which will fill only their pockets,8221; Kandarkar reasoned while rejecting the proposal.
However, in all these institutions, except colleges and polytechnics, not less than 15 per cent of admissionswill be conducted on the recommendation of the education officer.
According to the proposal, the BMC will acquire plots for primary, secondary and other educational institutions, free of cost from the owners in lieu of Transfer of Development Rights TDR. However, if the owners are willing to construct the buildings and hand them to the BMC, they will be eligible for additional TDR.
The BMC will then advertise and publish a list of municipal plots or buildings which are not required by the education officer and the trusts will have to choose from among these. The school premises will then be leased to educational trusts which have a track record of five years of running a school successfully for 30 years.
The fee structure will be defined by the education officer and trustees will not be allowed to charge capitation fees. Also, as far as possible, students admitted to a particular school should reside in neighbouring areas. Trusts which fail to construct a school within two years of applying will haveto surrender the plot to the BMC.
The BMC has already received several proposals from institutions asking for vacant plots but has asked these parties to submit their proposals once again. A final decision will be taken after these are scrutinised by the Improvements Committee, Kandarkar said.
