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While many schools in the city have been grumbling against admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the state education department has found a way to curb powers given to these schools, in order to smoothly process applications under the act by following requisite norms. As the process for 25 per cent admission fast approaches, the department has formed a 20-member committee at district levels to verify the documents of parents who apply for admissions for their child under RTE.Until last year, the schools which were allocated to the parents would verify the documents and then give a nod to the admission ofunder the economicallyfor 25 per cent RTE.Now, the process of RTE applications has been shifted online, with parents filling forms and uploading required documents on the portal.Parents and education activists had previously complained that schools would deny or keep the admissions on hold by finding some loopholes in the documents, but this practice will also be arrested as the state education department has now given parents the facility of getting the documents verified themselves.Sunil Chauhan, director of state education department (primary), said, “There was a legal matter going on regarding Balmohan School, wherein parents had complained that documents were not verified appropriately by the school thus facing problems in admissions. We had then formed a committee to verify documents. Going forward, all the RTE admissions will be processed by a committee, formed at the district and civic levels, which will verify the documents.”The committee will comprise education officers, centre head, one principal of a private school and one of a government school, two members of parent-teacher organisations and two members of a social organisation working in the education field. The heterogeneous committee will be charged with verifying all the documents of applicants.Last year, few schools had also asked for additional documents like bank statements other than an attested income proof, which the parents and activists had complained about to the education department.Chauhan said, “Taking into consideration the number of admissions that happened last year, each committee should manage the time required for verifying.”Also, the committee will upload each day’s verification details on the RTE website so that parents will come to know the status of their application.Chauhan also mentioned that schools do not have any right to verify any documents or reject any admissions.Mukund Kirdat, an education activist from the city, said, “While the 20-member committee has been formed, norms of income proof have also been tweaked. Apart from the government attested income proof, salary slip of private employer will also be accepted. This is to avoid the problem of verification of income certificate.”“Also, taking into consideration the number of parents seeking admission under RTE, the committee should make sure that verification process does not take long and parents are not kept waiting,” Kirdat added.