Education dept: No nod in 2025 for Aarrya’s clean school initiative

Mumbai: The school education department issued a clarification regarding the ‘Swachhata Monitor' school cleanliness initiative, after its project director, Rohit Aarrya, held 17 children hostage in Powai on Thursday. The department has clarified that no approval is currently in place for Swachhata Monitor in 2024-25.The initiative, run by Apsara Media Entertainment Network under the ‘Let's Change' project, proposed selecting a group of students in each school as "cleanliness monitors". They were to encourage peers and community members to avoid littering, spitting and other misconduct. Schools opting to participate were offered paid registration plans ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000.According to govt records, the organisation first received approval for the initiative through CSR funding on Sept 27, 2022, and again on June 30, 2023, for which it was paid Rs 9.9 lakh. In 2023-24, the govt sanctioned Rs 2 crore for a Phase-2 rollout under the Mukhyamantri Mazi Shala Sundar Shala campaign. However, the department noted the budget proposal submitted for Phase-2 lacked detailed cost justifications and did not align with technical and financial guidelines. Due to these gaps, Phase-2 was not implemented.Arya later sought approval to expand the initiative statewide in 2024-25, with a projected expenditure of Rs 2.41 crore. While the proposal was under consideration, the govt learned that Apsara Media Entertainment Network had begun collecting registration fees from schools through a private website without authorisation. In a letter dated Aug 23, 2024, the department instructed the organisation to deposit any collected funds into the govt account, ensure schools were not charged for participation, and resubmit a proposal meeting formal guidelines. Officials said the required information was not submitted, and no further action could be taken.