MHRD must reply on state of education, PMO told

Tribune India: Bijendra Ahawat: Faridabad: Wednesday, October 24, 2018.

The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) has directed the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to ask the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to submit a reply within 15 days to a query under the Right To Information (RTI) Act over commercialisation of education in the country.

The order came in response to the second appeal filed by Kailash Sharma, an office-bearer of the Abhibhawak Ekta Manch, a body of parents’ associations, that the authorities concerned had failed to provide a satisfactory response to an RTI application filed on June 29 last year.

CIC Radha Krishan Mathur, in his order passed on October 16, observed that the PMO should transfer the RTI query to the MHRD within five days of receipt of the order, which should reply within 15 days thereafter.

The applicant had sought information about measures taken by the Union government to curb commercialisation of education after Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the issue during his public address at an election rally in Agra on November 20, 2016.

“The Prime Minister had announced that his government would take measures to curb commercialisation of education as the common man was finding it hard to get his children admitted to private schools and a majority of schools sought capitation fee and other charges,” said Sharma.

Dissatisfied with the response of the PMO regarding his first application filed on June 29, 2017, Sharma submitted an application to the First Appellate Authority on November 2, 2017. With both replying that the issue did not come under their purview, he filed an application to the CIC on November 17, 2017.