Parents submit complaint against pvt school to DC

Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, August 19

Several parents, whose wards are studying in St Joseph’s Convent School, submitted a complaint to Deputy Commissioner B Srinivasan today against the school over the alleged misappropriation of funds for the NASA trip.

They alleged that the school authorities had collected Rs 1.50 lakh from 85 students and are not returning the trip money despite the fact that it had been cancelled following the refusal of visa by the US embassy.

In a complaint, they have alleged that St Joseph’s Convent School had scheduled to arrange for an educational tour of their students from Classes IX to XII to NASA, US, in December, 2018. Further, they claimed that the school had prompted the parents of students for the participation of their wards in this tour. The school had collected Rs 1.50 lakh each from 85 parents by cash or through cheque in favour of M/s Starice (P) Ltd, out of the agreed amount of Rs 2.50 lakh for the participation.

Later, the US embassy refused to grant visa to the first batch of 35 students that was presented before the embassy in June, 2019. Therefore, the school cancelled the trip.

The parents alleged that despite the fact that tour had been cancelled in June 2019, the school was not returning the money collected for it.  

“It has been more than eight months that the school has not returned our money. We are feeling cheated,” they added. They requested the Deputy Commissioner to initiate action against the school authorities for not returning their (parents) hard earned money.

While talking over the phone, St Joseph Convent School advocate Jaideep Nayyar said, “We are standing with the parents and will fully support them in getting their money back from the company. The only hiccup is that the contract was directly signed between the company and the parents, so the school on its own cannot initiate any legal action. It has to be done by the parents. However, whatever the terms are, we will surely stand in support of the parents and try our best to get the money of parents refunded.”

Deputy Commissioner B Srinivasan said, “Several parents today met me and alleged misappropriation of funds by St Joseph Convent School for a NASA trip. We are marking a probe into this incident.”