Author: ET Bureau
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: September 15, 2011
URL: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-09-15/news/30160392_1_bogus-students-schools-chief-secretary
A major scam has been unearthed in the education
sector in Maharashtra's Nanded district where crores have been spent by the
government on state-aided schools, but most students in these school records
have been found to be bogus.
According to the government's initial assessment
Rs 120 crore worth of funds have been siphoned away in Nanded district alone
and similar scams could be happening in many districts. Acting on complaints
from Nanded, state chief secretary Ratanakar Gaikwad visited the place and
carried out raids to find that though state-aided schools have had no students
in classrooms and the number of teachers was inflated.
In some cases, the number of students shown
on the record was inflated by over 50%. Confirming the reports about the scam,
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said this issue is extremely serious and
the government has initiated immediate action against the culprits. The issue
rocked the state Cabinet's meeting on Wednesday where state PWD minister said
that if similar scams are happening in other districts then the total figure
of misappropriation could be close to Rs 3,000 crore.
The Cabinet meeting saw a hot debate over
how to curb the trend of showing bogus students on record. The ministers were
shocked to see the presentation made by the chief secretary and demanded that
raids should be carried out in other districts as well. Some of the schools
are run by activists of political parties.
