The government Monday sought the details of transport facilities and other documents related to the school buses owned by private schools.
The move comes a day after the private schools body refused to ply its transport for the students after the schools reopen for the students from March 1.
The Private Schools Association J&K (PSAJK) in a statement asked parents to arrange to-and-fro transport facility for their wards.
The PSAJ&K issued the statement saying that the private schools in Kashmir were under financial distress due to the prevailing situation for the last two years.
Meanwhile, the committee for fixation and regulation of fee of private schools issued a notice and sought details about the vehicles owned by the schools, number of drivers and conductors who were in service of school during the lockdown period and the details of insurance premium paid to the insurance companies.
The schools have been also informed to submit the details of taxes, bank interest paid and details of the drivers and conductors who continued to be on rolls of school management during the lockdown period.
“The schools should also submit details of the number of vehicles hired by them and the transport fee, if any, charged and collected from parents during the lockdown period,” the notice reads. “The details should be submitted in offline mode or through email on chairmanffc@gmail.com.”
The notice was issued after the private schools approached the committee and sought permission to charge the transport fee for the lockdown period citing various reasons including salary to be paid to the bus drivers who were on the payrolls of private schools.
“The schools also stated that they have taken money on loan from the banks which continue to accrue interest and depreciation on the buses,” the notice reads.
However, the parents had already lodged complaints against the schools regarding charging of transport fee during COVID19 period despite government direction to the schools not to collect transport fee till matter was considered by the government.
Meanwhile, the private school association blamed the government for its inaction on the issue of school transportation.
The association said that they made repeated requests to the government to take a final decision regarding transportation fee charged from students which though was kept lingering till date.