By Hemant Chavda: Bhuj, Date 13: The amount of education cess collected by the six municipalities of Kutch is handed over to the Kutch District Panchayat. So far, this amount has come to Rs. 20,59,58,032, out of which after the expenditure of Rs. 5,17,66,580 during the year 2017-18, the amount of Rs. 15,41,91,502 has remained unused. According to the amount of education cess deposited by the municipalities of the district in the district panchayat till the year 2024-25, an amount of Rs. 43,14,798 has been deposited in Rapar, Rs. 10,13,82,436 in Gandhidham, Rs. 80,18,348 in Mandvi, Rs. 9,14,91,603 in Bhuj, Rs. 39,02,929 in Bhachau and Rs. 11,82,766 in Mundra. – Provision for expenditure in schools in the municipal area as capital expenditure: After the amount collected from the urban area by the municipality is deposited with the government, five percent is paid as commission to the respective municipalities and 65 percent to the district panchayat by the Gujarat Municipal Finance Board, Gandhinagar. Out of this amount, capital expenditure can be used to build, repair and enhance physical facilities and build properties in the schools in the municipal area. However, out of this deposited amount, so far, more than three crores have been approved for room repair, paver blocks, sheds, water tanks and compound wall works in 64 schools under the municipal area during the last year 2017-18, while no expenditure has been made except two crores for installing CCTV cameras in 80 schools in the district. – Guidelines were not followed properly: However, due to the non-compliance of the guidelines of education cess in the use of this amount, there were also complaints in the audit at that time, in which no proposal-request was made from any school for getting the works done or no details were shown about the need for such works in these schools, so what was the final result after this complaint was not revealed. Despite the existence of a construction branch of the district panchayat for building the rooms, a grant was allocated to the entire education sector, in which the work was assigned to different agencies instead of a single one with a low price in the tender process, while in the CCTV camera itself, the allegations that the prices of the Delhi agency were fixed and poor quality cameras were installed locally were raised at that time in the general meeting of the district panchayat. – Difficulty in using the amount due to allegations of corruption: However, due to allegations of corruption raised earlier, the tax money of the people has been left unused as the office bearers are feeling difficulty in using this amount. According to experts, after the audit reveals irregularities, the administrative department of the education office completes the general incompleteness and gives answers, but in serious cases, if the answer is not acceptable, the members of the PRC (Panchayati Raj Committee) discuss and consider and take action against the responsible persons as per the decision taken in it. – The amount of Samagra Shiksha is sufficient to meet the expenses: Meanwhile, according to experts, since the grant allocated by the state and central governments for education under Samagra Shiksha is sufficient to meet the expenses of education, in fact, the education cess collected by the municipalities for education should be stopped, so that the burden on the citizens is reduced. The audit of 2020-21 is currently underway, which goes back five years, and soon the team of inspectors from Gandhinagar Local Fund will come to Kutch, along with whom the District Development Officer and District Panchayat President will discuss the findings of various branches regarding the 2018-19 audit, a meeting has been scheduled on what comes out of it. – Education Committee held a discussion in the meeting for the use of education cess: In the recent meeting of the Education Committee of the District Panchayat, a discussion was held on what can be spent from the education cess amount. Committee Chairman Virambhai Gadhvi had proposed to build the missing rooms of the school from this amount, which is known to have not yet received approval from the higher level.
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