Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 3
The Haryana Government has made Aadhaar card mandatory for admission to government schools and availing of benefits under various government scholarship schemes across the state. Students seeking admission without the card will be admitted only provisionally.
The state government’s decision has left the teaching fraternity confused as the directive comes at a time when the admission process, which started on April 1, is already under way.
Acting on a circular issued by SS Bangad, Technical Officer, Secondary Education Department, the district education officers (DEOs) and district elementary education officers (DEEOs) have instructed the heads of educational institutions to enrol students with Aadhaar cards. Munish Choudhary, Block Elementary Education Officer (BEEO), Faridabad, yesterday said students without Aadhaar cards would be admitted provisionally and efforts would be made to get their cards made later. Sources said the decision to make the Aadhaar card mandatory for admission was part state government’s efforts to link the card with bank accounts so that the scholarship amount was directly transferred to students’ bank accounts.
More than 20 lakh students belonging to the SC, Backward Class and BPL families are paid scholarship amounts varying between Rs 75 and Rs 600 per month by the government. Rajiv Arora, District Education Officer, Faridabad, asserted that those admitted without the card would not be paid the scholarship amount by the state government. But sources said special camps were being organised in schools to prepare Aadhaar cards.