School in a soup for taking fee sans receipt

times of india. chennai edition, 27/05/9 page no.6
Chennai: A government-aided school in K K Nagar came under the scanner of the education department on Tuesday after some of its officials demanded money for providing transfer certificates (TCs). After the intervention of the Department of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DV&AC), the district education officer conducted an inquiry.
The Kalaignar Karunanidhi Nirmala Girls Higher Secondary School on Kamarajar Salai is a government-aided institution till Class 10. Classes 11 and 12 are self-financed. On Tuesday morning, several parents and children who came to collect TCs were shocked when some teachers asked them to shell out Rs 200 as maintenance fee.
“They had collected Rs 5,800 as fees, including maintenance charges, at the beginning of the year. But they are again demanding money and that too without giving any receipt,” said Subramanian, a parent who refused to pay.
He said one of the teachers even claimed that the school’s clout extended to the chief minister’s office. “The school has been taking Rs 100 and Rs 200 during the year for various reasons. But the transfer certificate is necessary for the future of children and hence the parents give the money without questioning,” he said.
Another parent who gave the money said, “We did not want to have any problems and so we gave Rs 200.” Subramanian then informed his friend Gopalakrishnan, a member of Federation of Anti-Corruption Teams (FACT) India. The latter informed inspector Jeevanandham of the DVAC who alerted the district education officer.
Around 11.15am, the district education officer reached the school, conducted an inquiry and ordered the school to stop collecting money and also took an audit of the total money taken from parents.
“As Classes 11 and 12 are run by the management, they could have collected money to run the institution. Had a receipt been given there would not have been any problem. I have asked the school administration to return the money taken from parents and not to collect the amount from others,” the officer said.
V Panchamoorthy, another parent, said the authorities refused to return the money when his daughter went to collect it. “They said it was donation money and refused to refund it,” he said.
The school authorities told the Times of India that they were collecting maintenance fees as was usually done at the end of the academic year.