NEW DELHI: Chairing a meeting of the Delhi Development authority on Thursday, Delhi Lieutenant-Governor B.L. Joshi suggested that henceforth no land should be allotted to private institutions for running of schools. He was of the view that to check misuse of allotment at concessional rates, it was essential that 50 per cent of the plots be allotted to government schools for supporting education of the poor while the remaining 50 per cent be auctioned to fetch maximum revenue for DDA.

However, the matter was opposed by some Members like the MLA from Nasirpur, Mahabal Mishra, who demanded that school land should not be auctioned as that would make education prohibitively expensive in the Capital. Instead, it was suggested that the allotments be made to only those private who have a proven track record in running educational institutions.

Though in the past too the proposal had been opposed by all non-official members, the Authority again took it up at its meeting. The matter had first been raised at a meeting in 2003 when it was decided that sites for various types of professional or technical institutions be disposed of by auction in future. It had also been desired that the issue of auctioning land for schools, which are being run on a commercial basis, should also be examined in depth for a policy decision.

While the Nazul Rules, 1981, had provided for allotment of institutional land for various purposes to public institutions, over a period of time the rules were amended to provide for disposal of land for certain purposes such as professional and technical institutions, clubs and community halls by auction instead of allotment at concessional rates.

But while schools, religious institutions and social and charitable institutions were still to be allotted land, DDA has proposed inclusion of schools for auction as it felt that that the conditions for allotment of land for schools which included admission to students belonging to the weaker sections of society to the extent of 25 per cent and grant of free-ship to them was being violated in most cases.

In effect, DDA noted that not only were many institutions not adhering to the conditions, there have also been practical difficulties in their actual enforcement. Also, it said, there were complaints that societies had been indulging in unauthorised transfer of such land by changing promoters and members, and as such many of the charitable societies have been cornered by persons for profiteering.

As all this had brought bad publicity and adverse reports in the media, Parliament questions, and criticism in Parliamentary Committees and reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, DDA had said the view emerged that plots for educational institutional should also be disposed of by auction since this would ensure that the subsidies are not misused, the sale is at market value and the process of disposal is transparent.

At the same time, to protect the interest of the poorer sections of society, DDA said it was felt that sites would be kept aside for the Government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for development of government educational institutions. But the non-official members disagree with the policy and are insisting that the emphasis should be more on enforcement of the terms and conditions of allotment rather than changing of the policy per se. As such due to opposition from the non-official members, the issue again got put off till the next meeting.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail