chandigarh the implementation of rte act in the city has been reduced to a tugofwar between the ut education department and private schools the ut has failed to take any action may it be on the skewed studentteacher ratio in government schools or the 25 seats for the economically weaker sections ews of society in unaided private schools lying vacant or converted to general category by some according to sources out of 260 seats that were left vacant in unaided private schools after march 27 only 10 seats have been filled with ews children and the rest 90 have either been converted to general category or are laying vacant awaiting a decision from the department despite the tussle all that the department has been doing in the name of action is sending a last warning letter to schools every time an issue crops up after an exchange of letters between the department and private schools on april 17 the department has sent yet another warning letter to two private schools located in sector 38 and sector 26 for denying admission to ews children talking about the same district education officer deo ram kumar said action will be taken against the schools if they convert seats meant for children from the ews category to the general category without our permission on tuesday we have sent warning letters to two schools vivek high and st kabir as they denied admission to children as specified under the rte act even though they have ews seats lying vacant we have asked them to admit children within a week on the other hand the independent schools association isa is adamant about the points they raised in the letter sent on april 19 when asked isa president h s mamik said we are waiting for the department to finish its work and to recognize the schools as without recognition we are not eligible to implement rte act or even function our applications are lying with the department for the last six months these are the prerequisites they need to work on the department says why should the schools worry but without recognition we might be denied the reimbursement amount or by 2013 we might be shut so why should we take the risk and not wait for recognition the department should first recoginize us and then hold us responsible for not doing our duties as far as the rte issue is concerned it seems that the education department has failed to take any strict action which it has been claiming to have taken against schools in the city that failed to provide information about vacant seats or against those who converted ews seats to general category ones they even failed to come up with a policy where schools know what they should do with the seats lying vacant where ever there are no more students to be admitted despite all efforts the letters sent by the department on april 19 proved to be of no