Irregular expenditure in Kendriya Vidyalayas: Panel says Rs 60 due for recovery

There have been irregular expenditures in setting up and running of new Kendriya Vidyalayas for children of PSUs' and government-run institutions' staffs with Rs 59.67 crore due for recovery, a Parliamentary Committee has pointed out Tuesday.

Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan sets up schools on request from PSUs and institutes like IIMs and IITs on their campus for children of employees working there. As per norms, the Public Sector Undertakings or the institutes are supposed to reimburse the cost of setting up and running the schools.

However, a report tabled in Parliament Tuesday has pointed out that as on March 31, 2016 an amount of Rs 59.67 crore was due for 81 such schools. Of this, 34 has been already been shut due to various reasons, making the possibility of recovery as remote.

"The committee notes that KVS, an autonomous body under the HRD Ministry, establishes and manages KV and the scheme of KV has been extended to children of the employees of PSUs and government owned Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) on the condition that all recurring and non recurring expenditure on running these schools would be provided by the sponsoring agencies.

"The sponsoring authorities of some existing or functioning and closed project Vidyalayas defaulted in payment of dues resulting in recoverable amount of Rs 24.57 crore in the year 2003," the panel report said.

The committee said that along with the key concern of recovery of dues which have been long pending, the matter needs to be looked at in the larger perspective of the importance of Kendriya Vidyalayas in providing education.

The Parliamentary panel has recommended that after asking the sponsoring authority to transfer the infrastructural assets to KVs, the state governments and corporate entities in the area may be requested to contribute towards running of such schools under their corporate social responsibility initiatives.