NASHIK: The municipal schools which were closed due to the outbreak of Covid are now reopening. But immediately after the opening of schools, the purchase of uniforms for the students of these schools has created controversy.
The discussion that school committees are being pressured to uniforms from certain companies in the name of buying quality uniforms has created a stir in the municipal circles.
Last year, only one uniform was given to the students due to Covid-19. Currently, the schools have started, and the students are wearing the uniforms given last year.
Therefore, the corporation started to issue a new uniform for the current year and a fund of around Rs. 89 lakhs has also been received from the government. The municipality has 101 schools in which 29,954 students are studying. It provides free uniforms to all girls, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes students, as well as boys from the BPL group. For this, the government gives a grant of Rs. 300 per student.
There are 19,995 students eligible for the government grant. In addition, 9,800 students are from the open category, OBC, and minority community.
Uniforms worth around Rs 1.10 crores will be procured and the school management committee has been given the authority to procure uniforms. In this process, the municipality is expected to give student-wise grants for uniforms to the school management committee’s account.
However, there are reports that the school management committee is not procuring good quality cloth, stitching is not good, and some office bearers are insisting that uniforms should be brought only from certain companies. This is likely to lead to controversy over the procurement process.
