PIMPRI: After the dissolution of the Education Board of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), an education committee will replace it. The education committee, comprising nine corporators, will be formed in the General Body meeting on Saturday.
Meanwhile, lobbying has been going on within the parties for the post of the chairman of the education committee. Therefore, as a first step, many corporators wanted to be a part of the education committee.
Due to many cases of corruption in the functioning of the school board affiliated to the local self-government bodies of the State, the Mumbai High Court had passed an order two years back to dissolve all the school boards. The court also said that the State government should take a decision on this.
The State government had decided to keep the education board independent till February 2017, till the term of the General Body.
After the election of the PCMC in February 2017, on March 13, 2017, the new general body came into existence. At the same time, the existence of education board was extinguished under the Free and Compulsory Education of Children Act 2009.
However, the Municipal Commissioner did not issue an order for dissolving school boards.
On June 2, 2017, the commissioner issued an order to this effect. Municipal Commissioner has taken over all the rights on the decision about assets and employees under the school board. All rights granted to the Board of Education have been terminated.
Now the education committee will be set up in place of the school board. This committee will be formed in accordance with the Municipal Corporation Act.
In this, there will be an opportunity for the corporators to be a member of the committee. Unlike 15 members in the school board, there will be only nine members in the committee. These members will be appointed from various parties in accordance with their respective strengths. BJP will have five members, Nationalist Congress Party will have three members while Shiv Sena will have one member in the committee.
The ruling party had earlier passed a resolution for the appointment of seven corporators and eight people working in education and social fields. However, there is a provision of having nine corporators only.
Since this resolution was not in accordance with the set norms, PCMC could not establish school board. Therefore, the decision to set up a committee of nine corporators was taken in the General Body meeting of April.
