Srinagar, Jan 03: Accusing the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) of harassment, the Coaching Centres Association (CCA) on Wednesday said the government fleeced them through ‘unjustifiable’ ways.
Even as the quota “was already filled by respective coaching institutes”, President CCA, Junaid Yousuf, said in a press conference at a local hotel here that the DSEK has still asked them to provide free coaching to 10 per cent orphans and the destitute.
“The step is ill-planned as it was executed after the classes had already begun,” the CCA said.
Consequently, the CCA said, “The coaching institutes have ended up giving 20 per cent students free education in this session.”
The CCA threatened the DSEK that the “issue would be taken to court.”
While the DSEK confined checks on the centres that were already registered, Yousuf accused the directorate of going lax on hundreds of the unregistered centres.
“Absolutely no action is taken against the ones that are not even registered with the directorate,” reads the CCA statement.
“The first step on part of the directorate should be to seal the coaching institutes, which are unregistered rather than the harassment of the ones that are following all the norms.”
Yousuf also raised questions over the productivity of the DSEK-run winter tutorials and CM’s super 50 coaching centres.
“What have they done over these years? Why do not they advertise the achievements of these coaching centres?” he asked.
Claiming that the “Coaching industry is the only industry, which is liable to pay 18 per cent GST and also provide 10 per cent free services”, the CCA asked the government “to come clear on this ambiguity”.
The government was charging GST on them even on the 10 per cent quota of the destitute students, a CCA member alleged.
Accusing the DSEK of “discrepancies” even in the list of students constituting the orphans and the destitute, several CCA members claimed that the DSEK was forwarding them the list of the undeserving students.
“In fact the father of one of the students recommended by the DSEK as a destitute is a first class contractor. The DSEK officials had simply described the student as poor without any official proof,” alleged a CCA member.
The CCA, in the statement asked the government to take a cue from coaching institutes outside the state to fix the set-up in the valley.
“To start with at least, a comparative study of compliance in Jammu and Kashmir divisions should be done,” CCA said.
