The CAG report placed before Parliament on Friday also raises concern on issues related to compliance of the Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. It cites the failure to conduct regular household surveys by lo cal authorities in 21 states UTs to maintain update record of children from their birth till they attain age of 14 years.
State proposals for budget allocation under SSA were consistently higher and were curtailed by the Project Approval Board (PAB) due to non-adherence to norms of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the report said.Moreover, in the utilisation certificates of HRD ministry, the unspent balances at the end of the year did not match with the opening balance of the succeeding years during 2010-16.
The CAG also flagged how benefits such as transport, aids and appliances etc envisaged under the Act were not provided to all eligible children with special needs in five states and higlighted instances of how children above the age of 14 years were retained in elementary classes in violation of the Act in 15 states.
Pointing out at the gap in monitoring of implementation of the Act, the report stated: “The National Advisory Council which was entrusted with the responsibility of advising on the implementation of the Act, largely remained ineffective and not in existence since November 2014.“
CAG recommended aligning finalisation of annual work plans to the budget formulation exercise in Union government and the states. It suggested state governments conduct household surveys for identification of eligible children in the state to ensure provision of compulsory education and specific steps be taken to ensure enrolment of all eligible children to eliminate dropout rate, among others.
