Ranchi, March 9: The state government today admitted that for the last two years Jharkhand has been sitting on a corpus of more than Rs 10 crore meant to benefit 34,724 school girls.

Ironically, this telling disclosure mirroring the state’s apathy towards the girl child came on a day Elders championed the cause of the fairer sex and passed the women’s reservation bill in the Rajya Sabha.

Cornered by an Opposition MLA’s question on the Centre’s Balika Protsahan Yojana (BPY), state human resource development minister Hemlal Murmu promised the Assembly that the state government would ensure the scheme was implemented within a fortnight.

Under the scheme, initiated by the Centre in 2008-09, Rs 3,000 is to be deposited as fixed deposit in individual bank accounts of girls studying in Class IX in various schools. Students are free to use the interest on the deposit for educational purposes, but cannot withdraw the principal until they turn 21.

While tribal and scheduled caste girls studying in government and government-aided schools were among the beneficiaries, girls of all categories in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalays were also eligible.

Answering a question by JVM legislator Pradeep Yadav, Murmu assured the House he would make sure the money was transferred to bank accounts of eligible girls within a fortnight. “On March 3, the director, higher secondary education, wrote to district education officers to send the list of bank accounts of the girls to the state headquarters. We will ensure the BPY money is transferred to their bank accounts within the next fortnight,” said Murmu.

So far, the Centre has released Rs 4.74 crore for 15,806 schoolgirls for 2008-09 and another Rs 5.67 crore for 18,918 girls for 2009-10. But till now, no money has been deposited in accounts of eligible girls.

Murmu said the funds were lying with a State Bank of India branch in New Delhi and also disclosed the account number to pacify angry members.

Officers in the education department and teachers are, however, sceptical of the minister’s promise, pointing out that some schools were yet to open bank accounts for their girls.

“Opening bank accounts for the girls is a hard task. In some places, banks are making us run from pillar to post to complete the various processes,” said a schoolteacher requesting anonymity.

District education officers have already got in the act. “I have asked all schools under me to submit a list of bank accounts of beneficiary girls. Earlier, I had asked them to open the accounts for the girls,” said Ashok Sharma, the district education officer of Ranchi district.