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Is This The Best Himachal’s Education Minister Can do to Regulate Private Schools, Make Them Obey Govt Orders?
Shimla-On 27th March 2020, Suresh Bhardwaj, the Education Minister of Himachal Pradesh, had asked the private schools to stop compelling parents to deposit fees during the state-wide curfew and lockdown. He asked them to extend the last dates for depositing fees.
He had made this statement after the Director of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh, Dr Amarjeet Sharma, confirmed that it has come to the notice of the department that some private schools functioning in the state had fixed the last date for submission of school fees as of March 30th, 2020.
But parent continued to and are still receiving receive messages from schools asking them to deposit the fees. Messages sent to parents said the “bill” should be paid by 5th May 2020. This bill amounts to over Rs 26,000 for three months.
In addition to tuition fee, the bill included annual charges, fees for computer, skating, music, Taekwando, Dance, smart class, and miscellaneous charges.
The Student-Parent forum today wrote a letter to the Education Minister in which it said that on April 24, one of these schools sent messages to parents to pay the “bill” for March, April, and May months online. Earlier, in March, with a fee hike of eight percent, the school had sent a message for paying Rs. 19,000, the forum said. Now, the new message received on April 24 said that parents will have to pay about 26,000. This fee hike of 15 percent in addition to the previous hike of eight percent during such a crisis has bewildered the parents, the forum said.
Moreover, the forum expressed shock over the fact that these schools are also billing parents for activities/facilities skating, music, Taekwando, Dance, smart class etc. The schools are closed for a month now so some charges should not apply for this period.
The forum said that private schools have already made a hike of eight to twenty percent in their “bills”. Parents of about 70 percent children enrolled in Himachal’s 2712 private schools are employed as outsource workers, labourers, small-scale shopkeepers, taxi drivers, small businesses, hotel operators etc., the forum said.
Due to the lockdown, sources of income of these parents are badly hit. Paying hefty fees of schools during the lockdown has become a reason for distress for the parents, the forum said. No reason can justify hiking fees during such a time of crisis and compelling parents to pay their “bills” . Even though the government has asked them to extend the lasts dates for paying “school bills”, these schools are sending desperate messages.
If we rewind a little, we find that the Education Directorate has directed private schools as many as three times to not make any fee hikes without fulfilling certain conditions. First notification in this regard was issued on December 5, second on January 18, and third on March 12.
As per the forum, the schools were directed to not take decision on fee hike without conducting a general house. But the schools made fee hikes of upto 20 percent by defying this order. The Department did not take any action as always. The Directorate had also ordered these schools to adjust excess fee charged during the last year in the bills of current year. Nothing was adjusted, the forum said.
The forum has raised question over the insensitivity of these schools which are indifferent to COVID-19 crisis and lockdown and financial problems majority of parents are facing currently. In its letter, the Student-Parent forum requested the Education Minister to intervene and implement the notifications issued by the Education Directorate.
By Saturday evening, what Education Minister could do is tell the parents that there is nothing that he could do about the messages being sent to parents to pay the “bills” but he could only save them from paying a penalty for delayed payment of fees.
The Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Act is in force, but the State Government doesn’t seem to be capable of giving even a slap on the wrist of such private schools. The question is; Is this the best that the Education Minister can do to regulate and tighten the noose around private schools blatantly defying its orders?
Shimla-Himachal Pradesh Government employees working in different departments before January 3, 2022, would be given a higher scale at par with other employees on completion of two years tenure of regular service. A higher pay scale was also announced for the Junior Office Assistants (IT) on completion of two years of regular service.
Chief Minister Jairam Thakur made these announcements during the Karamchari Maha Sammelan of the Himachal Pradesh Non-Gazetted Employees Federation at the hotel Peterhof on Sunday.
He appreciated the role played by the employee especially frontline workers in the battle against the pandemic.
He said most of the government employees in the state have been given revised pay scales and on average, every employee has got the benefit of a 12 to 15 percent salary hike. There has also been an increase in the pension of about 1.50 lakh pensioners of the state. The financial benefits of Rs. 7801 crore have been given to state government employees and pensioners from the year 2018 to 2022. The pensioners who retired before 2016 are getting the benefit of a 15 to 20 percent increase in the pension while around 40 thousand pensioners who retired after 2016 would be benefitted soon, he said.
He said the daily wages were Rs. 210 in the year 2017 which has been increased by the present state government to Rs. 350. Similarly, 12 per cent interim relief annually has been provided to government employees and pensioners during the present government’s tenure. He said the Himachal government has provided Dearness Allowance to its employees and pensioners on the lines of Punjab and Central governments from the due date. The Punjab government has given only 5 percent interim relief to the employees while the Himachal government has provided 21 percent interim relief to its employees.
“Out of the total interim relief amount given to the employees and pensioners amounting to about Rs. 6500 crore, Rs. 3500 crore has been paid during the tenure of our government” added the Chief Minister.
He said that the state government has increased the government contribution for NPS employees from 10 percent to 14 percent benefitting more than one lakh employees. The NPS employees are being given the benefits of retirement and death gratuity at par with employees falling under the old pension scheme. The government has also increased the upper limit of death gratuity from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh.
The Chief Minister said the state government has also increased the honorarium of para-workers working in various departments. The salary of outsource workers has been hiked by Rs 1,500 per month.
Non-Gazetted Employees Federation President Ashwani Thakur thanked the Chief Minister for providing various financial and other benefits to different categories of government employees.
New Delhi-The Centre has issued a notification to the States informing that the provisions of the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005 will not be invoked in the country after March 31. The Union Health Ministry said that the use of face masks and following hand hygiene will continue.
It implies that most of the Covid-related rules and restrictions would end.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla issued the notification which said that the decision was taken following the overall improvement in the situation and the preparedness of the government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, local authorities and State police can still invoke fines and criminal cases against persons violating COVID-19 norms under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a senior government official said.
The DM Act was invoked on March 24, 2020, due to the pandemic
“Over the last seven weeks or so there has been a steep decline in the number of cases. The total caseload in the country stands at 23,913 only and the daily positivity rate has declined to 0.28%. It is also worth mentioning that with the combined efforts, a total of 181.56 Cr vaccine doses have been administered,” the notification said.
“I would like to mention that in view of the nature of the disease, we still need to remain watchful of the situation. Wherever any surge in the number of cases is observed, the States/UTs may consider taking prompt and proactive action at a local level, as advised by MoHFW (Health Ministry) from time to time,” the notification said.
The Indian government had issued various guidelines and measures for the first time on March 24, 2020, under the Disaster Management Act to curb the COVID-19 situation in the country, which have been modified several times thereafter.
India currently has 23,087 active COVID-19 cases and recorded 1,778 new cases and 62 deaths in the last 24 hours. The daily positivity rate has also declined to 0.28%.
Shimla-A meeting of the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet was held on March 20, 2022, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
The excise policy for the financial year 2022-23 was approved. Approval was also given for the renewal of retail excise vends in the state for the financial year 2022-23 at the renewal fees of 4% of the value of unit/vend.
The State Government said that wants to enhance the government revenue and curb the smuggling of country liquor from the neighbouring states by a reduction in its price.
The brands of Country Liquor will be cheaper as license fees have been reduced. This will help in providing good quality liquor at a cheaper rate to the consumers.
In the new excise policy, the 15% fixed quota of country liquor for manufacturers and bottlers to be supplied to the retail licensees has been abolished. According to the government, this step will give the retail licensees to lift their quota from the suppliers of their choice and further assure the supply of good quality country liquor at competitive prices. The MRP of country liquor will be cheaper by 16% of the existing price.
In this year’s policy, the Gaudhan Vikas Nidhi Fund has been enhanced by Re.1/- from the existing Rs.1.50 to Rs.2.50.
The fixed annual license fee of Bars has been rationalized by abolishing the area-specific slabs of license fee. Now throughout the State, there will be uniform license slabs based upon the room capacity in hotels.
Rates of the annual fixed license fee of Bars in the tribal areas has been reduced considerably.
Further, all the above stakeholders will have to install CCTV cameras at their establishments as it was made mandatory for them.
Wholesale vends and retail vends, the penalty provisions under the H.P. Excise Act, 2011 have been made more stringent.
An end to end online Excise Administration System would be established in Himachal Pradesh, the government said.
HP Government estimates a collection of Rs 2131 crore revenue during the year, which will be Rs. 264 crores higher than the financial year 2021-22 – growth of 14% in state excise revenues.
The Cabinet also gave its nod to amend Himachal Pradesh Disaster Relief Manual-2012 to include deaths due to biting of honey bees, hornet and wasps, accidental drowning and deaths due to accidents of vehicles (including land, water and air) under this Manual.
The Cabinet gave its approval for filling up 11 posts of ‘A’ Class Tehsildar in Revenue Department through direct recruitment on regular basis through Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission.
HP State Toll Policy 2022-23
The HP Cabinet also gave its nod to HP State Toll Policy for the year 2022-23 which envisages auction cum tender for all the toll barriers in the State. During the year 2021-22, toll revenue has registered a growth of 20 percent of the previous year’s revenue.
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