Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, Oct 14: A deputation of Private Schools of different districts along with the Executive members of central body of J&K Private Schools Association under the chairmanship of Kamal Gupta called on Shokat Mohd. Malik 1st Appellate Authority/Joint Director School Education, Jammu.
Members highlighted the problems which included difficulties in obtaining approval of the management committee, regular harassment to unaided private schools of Jammu division to furnish the irrelevant details under RTI Act- 2009 by the Chief Education Officers of different districts.
General Secretary Association, Ajay Gupta briefed the 1st Appellate Authority /Joint Director School Education that in RTI Act 2005, Exemption from disclosure of information is categorically specified in section 8 of CHAPTER II at page number 7 and 8 simultaneously. Same precedent was adopted by the erstwhile Government of Jammu and Kashmir which adopted RTI -Act on March 20, 2009. Moreover on May 13, 2011 the erstwhile J&K State Information Commission has also issued a circular regarding the enforcement of RTI Act in J & K through which it is categorically pertinent that unaided/ self financed Private schools do not fall under the ambit of RTI-2009, he added.
To settle this ambiguous problem regarding RTI Act-2009 for the unaided / self financed private school, members demanded clear cut instructions for all officials of different districts of J&K. They also demanded transparent, time bound and simple mechanism for the approval of management committee to save this venture from harassment and exploitation.
1st Appellate Authority /Joint Director School Education Jammu listened to the members patiently and said that the directions issued by any Chief Education Officer to any unaided / self financed private schools to appear before the 1st Appellate Authority /Joint Director School Education is surprising and irrelevant. He assured the members to establish judicious and transparent mechanism for the approval of the management committee to stop exploitation & harassment at all the stages.
The members who accompanied the deputation were Rameshwar Mengi Vice President, Sanjeev Luthra Member Central Body, Ajay Singh Member Central Body, Satpaul Mansotra from district Kathua, Jatinder Heera from district Reasi, Ram Parkash from district Udhampur, Raj Dev Singh, Vir Vikram, Malhar Singh, Pardeep Kumar, Jaswant Raj, Rashpaul Singh, Naresh Kumar, Rajeev Luthra, etc.
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