Putting brakes on the powers the school board was enjoying, the standing committee had last week stripped the board of some of its powers which were passed onto the municipal commissioner. The school board had powers regarding the purchase of school material like uniforms, bags and socks.

The commissioner was also been awarded the powers to make recruitments of school staff. All the political parties came together and opposed the earlier decision by standing committee and forced the general body meeting to restore the powers to the school board.

As against the budget amount of Rs 142.73 crore put up by the education board, the standing committee had given the nod to commissioner’s budget of Rs 123.71 crore. Out of this, the school board is entitled to get Rs 61 crore only in the form of salaries of the teachers, medical bills, housing and miscellaneous expenses. However, the general body restored all the powers to the education board and the budget was hiked to Rs 133 crore again.

However, during the discussion at the civic meeting, BJP corporator Anil Shirole supported the move by the standing committee. He said, “The decision to withdraw the powers of the school board is historical. But in case the powers are handed back to the school board, and it fails to perform again, the powers should be taken back once again.”

Proposal to provide mid-day meals to balwadi students

Students from Class I to V of the civic schools are provided the mid-day meal scheme from the year 2007 under the Urban Slum Development programme. About 31,000 students of civic schools are given the free mid-day meal. But the commissioner has put up a proposal before the standing committee to provide the same to 12,000 balwadi students. The proposal says, “Ninety per cent of the balwadi students are from the weaker sections of the society and there is a high rate of malnutrition amongst them. Hence, it is necessary to include these children in the mid-day meal scheme.”