BHOPAL: Despite several warnings by senior officials of the School Education Department, the school authorities at the ground level have not updated the bank account numbers of 255,279 students, because of which they are deprived of their scholarships.
KK Dwivedi, director, School Education, chided the field staff at a review meeting held this week. These 255,279 students out of a total of 451,385 — who have failed to get scholarship as their bank accounts were not updated on the education portal by the school staff — are studying in government schools across the state.
Such schools were given a warning first on September 26 and instructed to update the bank accounts of such students. Another reminder was sent on October 10. Later, October 26 was set as the deadline for updating such accounts. However, these actions did not yield any results, after which director Dwivedi issued instructions that, if any student was deprived of scholarship due to erroneous bank account number, accountability would be fixed and disciplinary action taken against the staff members responsible.
Dwivedi said that only 57% of the bank accounts of students were updated. Mandsaur, Sheopur, Indore, Sidhi, Morena and Agar Malwa districts proved to be worst-affected districts where only 30% of the accounts were updated. Reports suggest that the situation is not good even in state capital Bhopal. Here, the bank accounts of only 44% students had been updated on the portal. In Bhopal, records of 5,407 students have been updated out of a total of 12,382 students whose scholarship payments failed. In Bhopal division, the account numbers of 24,462 of a total of 39,841 students have been updated.
Agar Malwa and Morena districts have performed the worst as the bank accounts of only 15% and 17% students were updated in these districts, respectively. As many as 16 districts, including Bhopal, Satna, Gwalior, Dewas, Bhind, Shivpuri, Narsinghpur, Tikamgarh, Guna, Datia, Mandsaur, Sheopur, Indore, Sidhi and the districts mentioned above have updated fewer than 50% of the students’ accounts.
Good news comes only from Shahdol and Khargone where bank accounts of about 99% students have been completed.
Director’s warning
‘The department won’t allow the students to suffer. Strict action will be taken against the staff of schools held accountable for this work’
— KK Dwivedi, director, School Education
