J&K Govt Initiative: First 2 children of police martyrs to get educational expenses upto Rs 46,000 annually
Private schools to treat these students as admitted under EWS
Jammu, Jan 09: J&K government will reimburse educational expenses of two eldest wards of police martyrs up to class 12th in any school in the Union Territory (UT), up to a maximum ceiling of Rs 46,000 per child annually.
The private schools will treat these students as part of admission under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category. In case the second child is a twin, then both the twins will be entitled to reimbursement.
The children will continue to be entitled for education expenses even if their mother (widow of the martyr) remarries.
These guidelines are part of the tweaked procedure which the government adopted on Monday after simplifying the process for reimbursement of educational expenses of children of police martyrs in partial modification to the Government order No.1460- GAD of 2018 dated September 29, 2018.
Reimbursement will be for meeting the expenditure on account of education of wards of such personnel of Jammu and Kashmir Police, who are “martyred in the course of performing duties attributed to militancy related incidents or violence.”
As per the modified procedure, the government will reimburse the expenditure towards monthly fee, transportation charges, up to a maximum ceiling of Rs 3,000 per child per month; one-time annual uniform charges, up to a maximum ceiling of Rs 10,000 per child per year and one-time expenditure on books (only text books prescribed by the respective Boards) if any, up to class 12th in any school (both government and private), within the territorial jurisdiction of the Union Territory of J&K.
This arrangement will be deemed to come into force fully for the year 2022-2023, besides the pending claim of Rs 15.22 lakh for the year 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 will be reimbursed, subject to the specified stipulations, out of the funds amounting to Rs 1.70 Cr approved under detailed Head 028-Grant-in-aid and from the next fiscal onwards, the budgetary allocations on this account would be provisioned under Detailed Head 088- Welfare.
Funds will be released by the Finance Department under the said Head of Account in favour of Home Department or Director General of Police, who will in turn place the same at the disposal of District SSPs (including Police Districts) through the defined line of budgetary releases.
The schools, as per an order issued by GAD Secretary Dr Piyush Singla, would require to be duly recognized by the government and affiliated with the J&K Board of School Education or Central Board of School Education or any other registered Board in India.
“The private schools shall treat these students as part of admission under EWS and reimbursement will be made accordingly. It (reimbursement) shall be made for the first two children and in case the second one is a twin then both the twins shall be entitled to reimbursement under this arrangement,” Dr Singla said.
The reimbursement on account of monthly fee, transport charges, will be made on quarterly basis by the concerned District Superintendents of Police, on the production of relevant vouchers, where the family of the martyr ordinarily resides while the expenditure incurred on uniform and books will be reimbursed in the month of April every year subject to the specified ceiling and condition.
As per the order, the payment will be made to the legal guardian, whoever incurs such expenditure on the wards, by the concerned District Superintendent of Police on production of valid proof of guardianship by the legal guardian.
In case owing to any dispute the children of a particular martyr having varying guardians e.g. one child living with mother and the other with his family, the reimbursement will be made to both the guardians on actual basis however, on the production of a separate guardianship certificate to be issued by the concerned school authority.
The concerned District SP will draw the claims on account of school fee and transport charges on quarterly basis and cost of books and uniform on annual basis from the budgetary provisions to be placed at his disposal and further he will ensure that the school fee is not exorbitant and is at par with the rates charged by the school to other students.
“There shall be no ceiling on the amount of expenditure incurred by the legal guardian on the education of wards under the covered items except transport charges and cost of uniform where the maximum ceiling has been specified.
In the event of any dispute with regard to the guardianship of a child or any other impediment, the Director General of Police shall be the appropriate authority to settle the same, whose decision in the matter, shall be final,” Dr Singla clarified in the order.
The expenditure incurred under this scheme will be subject to audit by the concerned agencies at any point of time. (GK) reports
