DC, DEO show discord over income certificates

CHANDIGARH: Confusion has surrounded the EWS admissions under Right to Education (RTE) Act in the city again. Amid the confusion, many schools are unable to decide on the draw date for EWS admissions.
Officials from district education office said as per details sought from schools, there are 300 pending applications of income certificates with DC office.However, DC office maintained that income certificates have not been processed in case of 175 applications only owing to objections on them which have not been cleared.
DEO Anujit Kaur has also written to DC stating that approximate 300 applications are pending for issuance of Income certificate. "You are requested to please provide details regarding pending applications for issuance of income certificates which are required for admission under RTE Act," it read.
In the letter, DEO office has also requested DC office to issue income certificates to parents who have applied for admission without certificates. The letter read as, "Keeping in view the public interest, if there is any chance to extend the date for accepting the applications for income certificates, the same may please be informed as more than 2,000 admission forms have been received without income certificate."
The officials from DC office however denied possibility of any extension. DC Mandip Singh Brar said, "We have not received any communication from education department. I have checked and there are no pending applications from our side except for the applications on which objections were raised and no one returned to clear the objections."
As per details received from education department, there are a total of 765 seats under RTE Act and land allotment scheme in 53 private schools. For these seats, 4,162 forms have been received out of which only 1,064 applicants have income certificates issued. In total, 348 have receipts indicating that they applied for income certificates. In total, 660 forms have been received from disadvantaged groups and total of 2,090 applicants have applied with affidavit and without affidavit. Education department wants DC office to issue income certificates for these 2,090 candidates. DC office did not reply positively.
On the other hand, as per the data available with the DC's office, they received 1,352 applications in total for issuance of income certificates and out of all 1,177 income certificates were issued. The 175 remain because of the objections on them. No one accept, 24 people returned in response to the objections raised. These 24 applications are awaiting generation of income certificates.
An official from DC office said, "The last date for applying for income certificate was January 15. It will be difficult to open the process again."
Meanwhile, DC Mandip Singh Brar said, "Anyone caught supplying wrong information to get income certificates will be penalized."