Fwd: Delhi Govt. is not serious about implementation of GR mechanism constituted under RTE Act
REJIMON C K
From: "Pardarshita News" <pardars...@gmail.com>
Date: 17 Oct 2014 16:16
Subject: Delhi Govt. is not serious about implementation of GR mechanism constituted under RTE Act
To: <pardars...@gmail.com>
Cc:
Dear Friends
As per Section 32 of Right to Education Act (RTE)2009 if any person having any grievance relating to the right of a child under this Act may make a complaint to the local authority and local authority shall decide the matter within a period of three months after affording a reasonable opportunity of being heard to the parties concerned.
For the implementation of Sec 32 of RTE and redressal of grievances Govt. of N.C.T of Delhi has notified Deputy Director of Education (DDE) of each district as a local authority to redress the grievance. In continuation of this notification on dated 25th April 2014 Directorate of Education (DOE), Govt. of N.C.T of Delhi issued a circular regarding the guidelines for Redressal of Grievances under section 32 of RTE Act.
As per circular issued by DOE
“A three member committee comprising DDE (concerned district), Education Officer (concerned zone) and Assistant Director of Education (Admin) shall be constituted in each district for the purpose of deciding the matter and dispose of the complaint.”
This circular further explains
“The Deputy Director of Education (DDE) shall fix days/timing for hearing grievances and for personal meeting with aggrieved parties before the dispose off the case. It is also mentioned in the said circular that grievance related to matter of urgency, such as denial of admission etc., the DDE shall decide the matter within 15 days from the date of receipt.”
To know the status of Grievance Redressal (GR) and functioning of GR mechanism in Delhi Pardarshita has filled RTI applications with all 13 districts of DOE and we found the following facts from the responses provided DOE which are as follows:
- Total number of grievances received by DOE till June 2014 is 67 only.
- Not even a single grievance is heard by the local authority i.e. DDE.
- Not even a single grievance related to admission (matter of urgency) is decided within 15 days from date of receipt.
- DOE has disposed of the grievances only on the basis of reply received from the school without giving any opportunity of hearing to aggrieved parties which is completely against the principal of natural justice, and against the spirit of RTE Act and provision of GR disposal mechanism. All orders show the protecting nature of local authority towards its schools and principals.
- Grievous grievances such as engagement of teachers other than teaching, screening of children by aided schools, denial of admission in private schools under EWS quota etc. were disposed of by the DDE without giving any opportunity of being heard. After analysis of orders received by DOE we found that these grievances are of very serious nature and it is mandatory to conduct enquiry before disposing off the cases. But all these cases were disposed off without any hearing or enquiry.
- It is highly surprising that DDE (South) has taken the copies of the complaints on 12/08/2014 only after filing of the RTI Application and these all complaints were filled in the month of April-June 2014. The reason provided by concerned DDE is that the online complaints could be seen only on 12/08/2014.
Some orders related to above facts are attached with this mail.
By clicking below link you can see the news on this issue which covered by Times of India on dated 13th October’ 2014.
With Regards
Rajiv Kumar