A file picture of a road blockade by the Guardians’ Forum in Siliguri to protest the fee hike in schools

Siliguri, Jan. 11: Six English-medium schools that were asked to submit their accounts of income and expenditure to the government by January 10 have failed to meet the deadline, the district inspector of schools said today.

A report to the effect will be sent to the directorate of school education soon, the DI said.

At a high-level meeting at the Circuit House here on December 16, two senior officials of the directorate, Amiya Sanyal and Monoranjan Roy, had instructed the schools to submit their balance sheets before and after the implementation of the increased tuition fees to the DI for scrutiny by January 10.

“The schools were supposed to submit their accounts to me addressing them to the directorate. I would have then forwarded them to the directorate. But not a single school has submitted their accounts or documents till date. I will send a report to the directorate,” said Asit Chakraborty, the DI of schools (secondary education), Siliguri.

The directorate is supposed to take a decision by February 22 after a comparative analysis of the balance sheets.

“If we feel that instead of increasing 25 per cent, the schools have raised 80 per cent, we shall then tell them to scale down their fees,” Roy had said after the meeting.

At the meeting, it was also decided that till February 22 those who have been paying the increased fees shall continue, while those who have not will not pay any till the issue was resolved.

However, it was made compulsory for outgoing students (even those who have not paid their tuition fees) to pay their exam fees before appearing for the board exams.

Sanyal, the deputy director of Anglo-Indian schools, and Roy, the deputy director (women’s education), had been appointed by the state school education department to probe the fee hike in the six schools of Siliguri.

The authorities of the six schools — St Joseph’s High School, Don Bosco School, Jermel’s Academy, Nirmala Convent, Auxilium Convent and New St John’s School — administrative officials of Siliguri and the Guardians’ Forum of North Bengal, which is spearheading the movement against fee hike, had attended the meeting.

The Forum has alleged that the schools do not have valid documents because of which they are evading the inquiry.

“Now the schools are in a fix because they have to submit their accounts to the department. They do not have valid accounts and had evaded similar enquiries by the district administration earlier last year. The schools should not think that they would be let off this time. We demand that they submit their accounts immediately or we will press for a CBI inquiry,” said Sandeepan Bhattacharjee, the Forum president.

The school authorities, however, have denied the charges. “These are baseless allegations. We are working on the accounts and will submit them as soon as they are ready,” said M.A. Joseph, the principal of Don Bosco School.