Funds for students from the minority and tribal communities for post-matric studies are suspected to have been misappropriated over the last 5 years
The government and the Maharashtra Police are close to blowing the lid off a massive scam in the state’s education sector. The police have launched a mammoth probe across the state, with the help of 64 government auditors, to look into allegations of misappropriation of funds amounting over Rs 222 crore disbursed under the Centre’s post-matric scholarship scheme over the last five years.
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The Maharashtra Police suspects that many applicants who didn’t fulfil the eligibility criteria were given scholarships under the central government’s post-matriculation scholarship scheme in the last five years. Representational pic
The scheme, announced in June 2006, helps poor students from minority and tribal communities — scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs), Vimukta Jatis (denotified tribes), other backward classes (OBCs) and special backward classes (SBCs) —pursue their post-matriculation education. While students from SC, Vimukta Jati, OBC and SBC categories are given funds under the scheme by the social welfare department, the tribal welfare department takes care of STs. The funds are routed through social justice and special assistance, tribal welfare, higher and technical education and medical education departments. These four departments then allocate the funds to colleges as per requirements.
The first arrests
Police sources say the web of the suspected scam began to unravel last year after more than nine cases were registered by the Gadchiroli police, and assistant commissioners of the social welfare department and project officers of the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) arrested for misappropriation of funds meant for the scheme.
Investigations led to startling revelations: that the social welfare and ITDP officers had cheated the government of Rs 3.39 crore and Rs 13 crore, respectively, in Gadchiroli alone.
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Fearing that a bigger scam could be playing out across the state, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered a high-level probe into the fund allocations.
Auditing on
On January 15 this year, an inquiry was initiated under the guidance of Additional Director General of Police (Training) K Venkatesham and a special investigation team (SIT) was formed. The SIT comprises some retired government officers.
The Maharashtra Police also took the help of 64 local fund auditors attached to Konkan Bhavan in Belapur to nail the scamsters. This team of auditors is assessing the numbers of scholarships approved in each district and the names of officers responsible any suspected embezzlement. Of the 64, 34 are auditing social welfare departments across the state and 29 are handling tribal welfare departments. Each district has a separate social welfare and tribal welfare department.
2 govt officers nailed
So far, the auditors have nailed two ITDP officers — one in Bhandara district for misappropriating funds of Rs 2,27,480 meant for 15 educational institutes from 2013-2016, and another in Pandharkawada from Yavatmal district of embezzling Rs 5,57,375 meant for 20 institutions in the same period.
Venkatesham believes that the auditors have barely scratched the surface. “It’s still early stages. Only two auditors’ reports have been submitted. The reports of 62 others are still awaited.”
An SIT officer said the auditors’ assessment will also extend to educational institutes under Phase-2. “Under Phase-1, the social and tribal welfare departments are being audited. After this, educational institutions will be put under the lens, to ascertain any embezzlement on their part. A final report will be submitted to the government.”
(With input from Dharmendra Jore)
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