State gives just Rs15 lakh per year for Scouts training

CHANDIGARH: Thousands of schoolchildren in the state pay fee for Scout training courses from their own pockets as the government is reluctant to hike the existing Rs 15 lakh annual grant-in-aid that is insufficient to run the programme for government school students.

Amaninder Pal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 26

Thousands of schoolchildren in the state pay fee for Scout training courses from their own pockets as the government is reluctant to hike the existing Rs 15 lakh annual grant-in-aid that is insufficient to run the programme for government school students.

In the absence of adequate financial help from the state, every student has to pay Rs 550 for five-day scout training camp.

Compared to just Rs 15 lakh annual grant-in-aid being provided by Punjab, neighbouring states of Rajasthan and Haryana give Rs 6.98 crore and Rs 3 crore, respectively, to run training courses for Scouts and Guides. Training is free and compulsory for every student in Kerala.

Till last year, the Bharat Scouts and Guides would exclusively organise camps for government school students of the entire state. Quizzed as to why students have to bear the financial burden of training, state secretary of organisation’s Punjab chapter Narinder Singh said: “We are bound to charge Rs 550 per camp from each student due to meagre government help. We spent Rs 370 on the diet of each student for five days. Rs 80 are charged by the management of the venue where we conduct camps. Remaining Rs 100 are saved as ‘Development Charges’, which we use to run affairs of the Bharat Scouts and Guides.”

He said, “The Organisation has annual salary bill of Rs 35 lakh, but the government provides only Rs 15 lakh, which is also not regular. We were given only Rs 12 lakh in 2014-15. Not a single penny was given in 2013-14 and just Rs 7 lakh was given in 2012-13.”

He said before the implementation of the Right to Education Act, 2009, every school would deposit some amount of annual registration fee to the district education officer (DEO) concerned. Fifty per cent of that fee was used for scout training programmes. However, after the implementation of the RTE Act, schools up to Class VIII can’t collect fee. This led to decline in collection of registration fee at the district level.

Director Public Instruction (Secondary) Balbir Singh Dhol could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.