As many of you would be aware, the Lady Irwin School Alumni Association (LISAA) disburses scholarships to students of Lady Irwin Senior Secondary School. The LISAA receives donations from some kind donors for these scholarships. On behalf of LISAA, I would like to record our gratitude to these donors.
Some of our prominent donors include Ms. Rita Narang, who collects about Rs. 1.5 lacs every year from NRIs in the USA, which is disbursed as scholarships to children. Another prominent donor is Ms. Purnima Kashyap, who provides funds for the Dr. P.C.Kashyap Memorial Scholarships. These scholarships, eight in number, are awarded to students of class 11, and the children get the scholarship for five years. (Two years in school @Rs.2000/-per year and three years in college @Rs.3000/-per year). Yet another scholarship has been instituted by Dr (Ms) Usha Nair - the ‘Kapil Memorial Scholarship’, details of which are available on the LISAA website: ladyirwinschool.org
Friends, I am posting this communication because of a peculiar problem that the Lady Irwin School Alumni Association is facing relating to the scholarships – namely that children given scholarships do not seem to want these scholarships!
Last year, in mid-September, one time scholarships of Rs 2000/- each were awarded to 31 children from class 1 to class 10 of Lady Irwin School. The selection of awardees was done by the school and communicated to LISAA by the principal. The names of the awardees were:-

No. Name of the student Class Father’s name Mr. Mothers name Mrs.
1 Ishita IB Siraj Krishna
2 Ananya Chakrabarty IA Devraj Chakrabarty Usha Chakrabarty
3 Gauri Yadav IC Late Rajesh Yadav Promila Yadav
4 Elisha Barua ID Sanjay Barua Rekha Barua
5 khushboo IID Deepak Kavita
6 Mubshara IIE Mohd. Shakir Shabnam
7 Rounak bahl IIF Chander Mohan Behl Poonam Behl
8 Ayesha Choudhary IIIC Shahbat Hussain Sabeena Naaz
9 Arpita Dwivedi IIIB Prabhat Kumar Dwivedi Kajal Dwivedi
10 Ayesha IIID Parvez Seema
11 Muskan IVA - Late Saraswati
12 Devanshi Bhardwaj IVE Late Rahul Sharma Siddeshwari
13 Swati Gussain IVB Late Satish Gussain -
14 Misbaah Naaz VA VA Massalah Nasreen Naaz
15 Prerna Barua VB Sanjay Barua Geeta Barua
16 Manisha Thapa VC Amar Thapa Shanta Thapa
17 Paridhi VF - Anshu Gupta
18 Aditi Rawat VIA Late Kamal Singh
19 Srijian Nanda VID Late Kamal Nanda
20 Riya Negi VIE Late Prem Singh Negi
21 Anupama Patra VIIC Arup Patra
22 Ananya Mishra VIID Adesh Kumar Mishra
23 Vanshika Jain VIIF Anil Kumar Jain
24 Sharan Harsh VIIIA Mukesh Kumar
25 Gunjan kashyapVIID VIIID Deepak Kumar
26 Tamanna Saini VIIIF Suresh Kumar
27 Himshikha Sinha XA Ashok Sinha
28 Anushka Krishna XA N.D.Singh,
29 Nidhi Dixit XA H.K.Dixit
30 Mani Yadav IXC Gulshan yadav
31 Yashtika Sharma IXC Rajiv Kumar

While finalizing the accounts for the last financial year, we have noticed that out of the above 31 students, only 8 children have encashed the scholarship cheques. These are:-
1. Paridhi 5F
2. Ayesha 3C
3. Arpita Dwivedi 3B
4. Swati Gossain 4B
5. Misbah 5A
6. Ayesha 3C
7. Ishita 1B and
8. Muskan 5A

It was indeed disappointing to find that 23 girls have not presented the cheque for encashment till now. Their names are mentioned below:-
Name of the student Class
1.Ananya Chakrabarty IA
2.Gauri Yadav IC
3.Elisha Barua ID
4.khushboo IID
5.Mubshara IIE
6.Ayesha IIID
7.Devanshi Bhardwaj IVE
8.Prerna Barua VB
9.Manisha Thapa VC
10.Aditi Rawat VIA
11.Srijian Nanda VID
12.Riya Negi VIE
13.Anupama Patra VIIC
14.Ananya Mishra VIID
15.Vanshika Jain VIIF
16.Sharan Harsh VIIIA
17.Gunjan KashyapVIID VIIID
18.Tamanna Saini VIIIF
19.Himshikha Sinha XA
20.Anushka Krishna XA
21.Nidhi Dixit XA
22.Mani Yadav IXC
23.Yashtika Sharma IXC

Through this mail I request the recipients of the scholarships who have not yet encashed their cheques to contact me by sending an e-mail to meenakshi.rampal@gmail.com . If any friends of these students should happen to see this post, please inform your friends.
I shall issue fresh cheques to those who have not encashed the old ones and give them after fixing a meeting (in the school). I would request you to please bring your old cheques. After you get the new cheques, please deposit them in your own bank account within the 90 day period that the banks allow.
If any girl does not wish to receive the scholarship, please tell us so that we can give the scholarship to some other child.
I want to emphasise that non-encashment of cheques leads to difficulties in accounting and audit. Our cash book reflects the payment on issuance of the cheque but the amount is not cleared from our account. Thus while we have booked the expenditure in our cash book, the amount is not debited from our bank account. The reconciliation of such discrepancies means additional work for our treasurer and our Charted Accountant because each entry has to be checked and rechecked
Non encashment of scholarship cheques also defeats the purpose of the hard work of our donors in collecting funds for the betterment of the School. The least we can do is to show respect for the altruism of our donors.
I propose to suggest at the next meeting of LISAA that any amount which remains uncashed for any reason may be added to the scholarship amount for the next year.

Meenakshi Verma