Maharashtra schools with fake students derecognised
These institutions used false names on their rolls to
collect government grants
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 18:24 May 29, 2013
Mumbai: A farmers’ organisation in Maharashtra has welcomed the state government’s decision to derecognise 600 schools that were showing bogus students on their rolls to collect grants.
“The Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti [VJAS], a farmers’ organisation, welcomes this biggest ever action in the history of Maharashtra to derecognise 600 schools belonging to politicians and legislators on the basis of a state survey which will save more than Rs10 billion [Dh6.53 million] being paid as grants for mid-day meals and uniforms of more than a million bogus students.”
In a statement, Kishor Tiwari of VJAS also demanded criminal prosecution against the school managements and recovery of all grants paid in the name of students.
There are more than 10,000 schools and 5,000 tribal residential schools that have been showing fake students to grab more than Rs30 billion, with the state paying more than 12,000 teachers who are on a fake payroll.
“Hence, we welcome the Maharashtra government’s action against such schools,” he said. “This is a clear criminal breach of trust and a case of fraud and therefore we urge Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to initiate action against erring school managements.”
Survey in Nanded district
The scam came to the fore following an in-depth survey of schools in Nanded district in 2011 ordered by then Nanded district collector Shikar Pardesi, now Municipal Commissioner of Pimpri-Chinchwad. The survey revealed that 135,000 of the 700,000 students in 3,475 schools in the district were bogus.
Chavan then ordered a state-wide survey which created a storm among political circles as it revealed that two million of 21.6 million students were bogus and 1,200 schools were identified in this scam.
The schools were mostly run by MPs and legislators of all political parties.
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