Students’ account: Lukewarm response by banks a hurdle

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, July 14

The opening of account of the students of the government primary schools here has hit a roadblock due to lukewarm response from banks.

Almost 50 per cent of 45,000 students in the primary classes are waiting to get a bank account, which was reportedly made mandatory by the state government a few years ago.

“Numerous visits to banks in the vicinity of school to get the accounts opened for a large number of students have failed,” says a head teacher of a government primary school in the Palla area here. Claiming that the bank officials were not interested in opening a zero-balance account, he said they were often turned away or asked to visit later citing one reason or another. “The state government has made it mandatory for students to have a bank account as it announced to directly transfer the scholarship and the dress allowance into the account of the eligible students,” he said.

“We recently took up the matter with the authorities concerned, including the District Education Officer (DEO) and the District Elementary Education Officer (DEEO), as the school staff is responsible for the work,” says Chatar Singh, General Secretary of the Government Primary School Teachers’ Association.

“Parents often complain of not getting the money given by the government for purchasing the school dress,” he said. Blaming the banks for not cooperating, he said the issue would be taken up with the higher authorities so that no poor student was bereft of the social beneficiary scheme.

Meanwhile, Satender Kaur, DEO, said the matter was being taken up with the authorities concerned for a solution.