Udupi: A Heated debate took place at the general body meeting of the Udupi Zilla Panchayat held here on Friday.

Zilla Panchayat members expressed their ire at Deputy Director of Public Instructions Diwakar Shetty as 600 children have been rejected their RTE seats for the academic year 2016-17. ZP member Geethanjali Suvarna raised the issue at the meeting, and said though the department admitted a total of 1,026 children earlier, 600 of them have been rejected now.

Only 426 children have been admitted in the first phase. “A total 600 seats are still vacant, and officials are citing some vague rules to deny the children these seats,” she said. MLC Kota Srinivas Poojari said though there were some guidelines with regards to neighborhood schools, the rule was modified by the Deputy Commissioner in the Dakshina Kannada district for the public good. “A Committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner has the power to make modifications to the rules, to avoid RTE seats lying vacant, and that should be done in the Udupi district too,” he urged. District Minister Pramod Madhwaraj said no RTE seats should remain unfilled in the district. “This very act of delaying and then denying RTE seats to children from economically weak backgrounds is not acceptable. The fact that only 40 per cent of RTE seats were filled in the district, shows that things are not on the right track,” he said.

During the discussion on the Kundapur school van tragedy, Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje suggested that from the next academic year onwards, the schools should be asked to buy their own school buses. She said overloading in school vans should be stopped by the authorities, without any delay.

Zilla Panchayat member Janardhan Tonse expressed his dissatisfaction over the working style of officials. “In earlier years, there used to be meetings at the hobli level to tackle the flood situation in low-lying areas, but that is not happening now,” he said. Udupi ZP president Dinakar, vice-president Sheela Shetty and Udupi ZP CEO Priyanka Mary Francis were present.