New Delhi, May 13
Uniform sets worth Rs 3.5 crore, ordered by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for poor students studying in the schools run by it, have been lying unutilised for over several months.
According to reports, instead of distributing the uniforms and the jerseys to the deserving and needy students, the MCD has locked these sets of uniforms in ill-equipped godowns. Despite this, the corporation officials have placed an order for another six lakh jerseys to be supplied to the students.
However, the MCD Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Mehta, told the ‘NCR Tribune’, “I have absolutely no information regarding this. I will have to find out the details before giving any explanation.”
Infamous for not being able to supply the schoolchildren their due in the form of books and uniforms on time, the MCD has now gone a step ahead with their careless and needless storing. According to reports, it is also being feared that the rats in the stores might have destroyed the uniform sets before they could be put to any use.
Ironically, the uniform sets had been supplied to the officials concerned in March this year. Instead of finding their way to the deserving students, these uniforms are now gathering dust in the godowns of the Education Department. What is intriguing is the fact that MCD officials have placed an order for another six lakh jerseys to be supplied to the students.
It is also being reported that the students of the MCD-run schools had to go without jerseys last winter and going by the reports of improper storage it seems unlikely that the students will receive their due this year as well, some MCD members alleged. The MCD was allocated a budget of Rs 15 crore last year to meet the demands of supplying books and uniforms to the students who cannot afford to buy them otherwise.
