Bhubaneswar, May 21: Government high schools of several districts are allegedly charging fees from students for giving them their certificates.

Complaints like this are pouring in at the toll-free students’ helpline set up by the department of school and mass education.

“Complaints to this effect reached us soon after matriculation results were declared on April 30,”said an official manning the helpline. About a dozen complaints have been reported from Koraput, Sundergarh, Khurda, Keonjhar, Puri, Ganjam, Balasore and Bhadrak. Schools have been telling students to pay up if they wanted their certificates. The amount ranged between Rs 100 and Rs 500 depending on the scores secured.

“According to the complaints, they have charged Rs 500 for first division, Rs 350 for second division and Rs 300 for third division marks. At Shaheed Rajiv Gandhi high school in Koraput, the authorities allegedly demanded Rs 1,000 for disbursement of certificates.

“The district education officials concerned, who visited the schools, reported that the complaints were genuine. They have issued a warning to the authorities not to continue such practices,” said Arunabala Tripathy, the official in charge of the helpline.

Students have been returned their money at Mangaspur High school, Sundergarh, Rajiv Gandhi high school, Koraput, Pratap Shashan Girls High School in Balakati, Khurda and Bishnupur High School, Khurda, said the official.

However, because of the absence of strong punishment, this practice continues unabated. “The number of such incidents have increased manifold. Two years ago, when the helpline was launched, there were hardly two to three such complaints of illegal collection of money from students but the numbers have gone up,” an official said.

As many as 10,479 complaints have been reported through the school helpline since it was launched in October 2010.

Following this, inquiries had been conducted and action taken on 6,316 cases. These included 51 cases of sexual harassment, 41 cases in which teachers came drunk to school and nine cases of discrimination for caste and creed.

“To popularise the toll-free number, it has been put up at prominent places in all schools. It can be accessed from 8am to 8pm every working day,” said an official.