Govt school amalgamated fund rules finally updated after 66 yrs

Chandigarh: In a first in 66 years, the school education department has updated the Govt Schools Amalgamated Fund Rules and is ready to take funding online from August 1.
The education department has conveyed this information through a letter, instructing the district education officer (DEO), principals, and heads of schools to ensure that all cashbooks of various funds maintained at their levels were completed in all respects and signed by the department concerned.
Director of school education Harsuhinder Pal Singh Brar explained, “Previously, the schools had around 33 cash registers and books, each handled by different teachers. Now, all this will go digital into one amalgamated fund. There will be one cash book and register, and it will be online. Plus, there would be more flexibility in spending the funds for child welfare.”
“Presently, cash is collected in schools and subsequently deposited in banks and transferred to the treasury. This process consumes a significant amount of time of teachers and staff, who are engaged in collecting fees each month and depositing them with the bank and treasury. The department intends to collect fees online using the government gateway, with fees being directly deposited into the Consolidated Fund of India. The software will also maintain an online cash ledger, reflecting the receipts and expenses incurred by the schools. The department aims to digitize the cash books maintained in schools, with the collection and maintenance of accounts being entirely online.”
As per the new instructions, all parties concerned shall forward the cashbooks to the section officer (SO) posted in the DEO office. The verified closing balance shall be carried forward to the NIC fee portal/online cashbook of government schools. All authorities concerned must ensure that from August 1 only online monetary transactions will be conducted at the DEO/government school levels. Online challan for tuition fees, if any, and funds deposited by students through the online portal will be directly generated. Based on the system-generated challans, the cashbook of student funds will be maintained with proper reconciliation at the DEO level. The drawing and disbursing officer (DDO) of govt schools will make proper reconciliation in terms of tuition fees/govt school amalgamated funds.
Non-compliance with these instructions will be taken seriously.