Patna, March 6: Terming multiple admission a social problem, chief minister Nitish Kumar today denied there was a “scam” over enrolment of students in government schools.

While intervening in a question raised by Achutanand of the BJP, Nitish said: “Children are not attending schools. Apart from saying what they have to say against me, I request the Opposition to appeal to people to send their children to schools while speaking in public forums.”

The chief minister’s remark evoked a strong protest from the RJD, which staged a noisy walkout.

The chief minister said the “mismatch” in figures of enrolment in schools was detected by the government itself and was not revealed by the Opposition, which was now terming it as a scam.

“We compared the figures given by two independent surveys and tried to tally them with the attendance in government schools. We found that the average attendance in schools was 60 per cent,” he said.

Nitish said the mismatch was also revealed through the health card scheme launched for school-going children.

The chief minister said his government had taken several steps to bring dropouts back to school. “We even asked police to take children loitering outside to schools,” he said.

Nitish attributed the mismatch in the school enrolment figures to the RJD regime’s decision to do away with transfer certificates.

“If we find any case in which government benefits have been taken in the name of non-existent children we will take action against the guilty,” Nitish vowed.

Nitish said the government had now decided to make transfer certificates mandatory for admission and link government benefits like mid-day meal, free cycles, books and uniforms to attendance.

Later, speaking to reporters, the Leader of the Opposition, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, said the chief minister’s statement was contradictory.

“On one hand he claims that the irregularity was detected by the government. On the other hand, he conceded that it came to light through independent surveys. Was it possible to detect the irregularities without the surveys?” he asked.

Siddiqui reiterated that middlemen had taken advantage of the government benefits by enrolling fake students in schools.