Chandigarh, December 3: Punjab government is struggling to clear bills for transportation expenditure incurred for educational trips of the students of government schools under the ‘Mukh Manti Vigyan Yatra’ scheme. These trips are organised to Pushpa Gujral Science City in Kapurthala. Bills of Rs 4.62 crore, including Rs 87 lakh of the year 2017, are lying pending with the government since the beginning of these trips in August this year while educational tours, which were planned for current year, two are almost completed.
Managing Director, PRTC, Manjit Singh Narang said that daily almost 40 buses of PRTC are engaged for such tours which were started in the month of August, but till date no payment has been made. He added that bills must be cleared timely as they have to spend money on purchasing diesel and other expenditures of buses.
This year 1.65 lakh students of government schools were to visit from August 1 to November 14 to Science City, out of which 1.30 lakh have already visited till November 14 and remaining tours would be completed soon. For such trip Rs 345 is required per student, including Rs 230 for transportation expenditure and Rs 115 per student for entry ticket to Science City. Mostly the bills lying pending are those of transportation charges. Daily two buses PRTC from each district of Punjab have been taking students to science city.
The Education Department had sent Rs 87 lakh, which is pending since last year, bill to the Finance Department on July 11, 2018, but till date money has not been released. According to an estimate, Rs. 5.69 crore was required for these trips, so the department also sought additional allocation of funds as only Rs one crore was had been set aside for this purpose by the government in the budget.
Source Indian Express
