Even as winter has set in, parents of over 60 lakh school children are still waiting for Rs 1,100 meant for the purchase of uniforms, sweaters and shoes for their wards who are being forced to go to schools without proper winter uniforms.

On October 30, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had declared that Rs 1,800 crore would be transferred through DBT in the bank accounts of parents of more than 1.60 crore students for the purchase of winter uniforms. He had claimed that the scheme would benefit students of primary, upper primary schools and non-government aided primary/pre-secondary schools.

“A parent would get Rs 1,100 per child and the payments would be made within a month’s time,” Yogi had declared while releasing funds online.

A month later, officials of the Education department claimed that over 60 lakh parents were yet to receive the money and the entire process was delayed because of the delay in the confirmation of bank details of parents with the details available with the school.

“Who will do it?” asked a leader of the Shiksha Parishad. “The teachers and officers of the Education department are deployed in the revision of electoral rolls. There is no one in schools to carry out the clerical work of confirming the bank details of the parents,” he said.

Officials said that the first lot of money was transferred to the accounts of over one crore parents but over 60 lakh parents were still waiting for the funds to purchase uniforms, sweaters, shoes and school bags.

An employees’ union leader said that the argument given by the official was that the direct transfer of money would ensure a transparent system as well as develop a market at the local level which in turn would generate self-employment opportunities in rural areas.

“Winter has already set in. The delay in transfer of money will lead to delay in purchase of sweaters and till then the poor students will bear the brunt of the winter,” he said.

Principal Secretary Deepak Kumar said that this money should have been transferred within a month’s time. “I need to inquire as to where the whole process got stuck,” he said.