New Delhi: The Jharkhand government has stepped up its crackdown in the pre-matric scholarship scam, in which the funds meant to help poor students were allegedly siphoned off by middlemen, banking correspondents and state government employees, the Indian Express reported. The state has suspended a key district welfare official in Dhanbad over the alleged scam. No arrests have been made yet.
Dhanbad district welfare officer Dayanand Dubey was suspended with immediate effect by the state government for “not following due process in conducting any inquiry resulting in illegal disbursement of the scholarship amount”. In a first information report (FIR) filed in Dhanbad in November, a computer operator was accused of registering schools on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) for the scheme without Dubey’s signature.
Two banking correspondents in Ranchi were also accused of being part of the alleged scam, whose accounts have been frozen by the Jharkhand State Co-operative Bank. They were identified as Hashim Ansari and Rajab Ansari from Urguttu in Ranchi’s Kanke block. However, the two accused have denied any involvement in the scam and termed the accusations as “baseless”.
The scam is worth about Rs 10 crore and involved middlemen from Chatra district in Jharkhand. It was carried out across six districts in the state – Dhanbad, Ranchi, Latehar, Ramgarh, Lohardaga and Sahibganj.
The centrally funded pre-matric scholarship scheme aims to help families from the minority communities with an annual income of Rs1 lakh to encourage parents to send their children to school. The scheme aims to provide Rs 1,000 per year to students of class 1 to 5 and Rs 10,700 if a hosteller or Rs 5,700 if a day scholar to students of class 6 to 10.
In 2019-20, the Ministry of Minority Affairs disbursed Rs 61 crore under this scheme to Jharkhand.
The Minority Affairs Ministry had initiated a probe into the distribution of these scholarships for 2019-20 in Jharkhand following reports by the Indian Express that the funds were being allegedly diverted by a nexus of middlemen, and bank, school and state employees.
Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Credit: PIB
Under the pre-matric scholarship scheme, eligible students can apply for the scholarship on the NSP or through a mobile application of NSP. In most cases, the school fills up their application, or middlemen. The disbursement of the scholarship happens once a year, usually in April or May. The payments can be tracked through Public Finance Management System (PFMS) software online through a beneficiary’s bank account number or application ID.
Also read: Punjab: As Scholarship Scam Issue Heats up, It Is Dalit Students Who Have Most to Lose
Findings of the report
According to the report, the nexus of middlemen, banking correspondents and state employees colluded to dupe several students and parents by taking their personal details such as Aadhaar cards and fingerprints, to disburse scholarships in their names. However, the students – unaware of the amount – were just handed over a fraction of the sum in cash.
During the process, the middlemen set up fake beneficiaries while leaving out genuine applicants.
The Indian Express, during its investigation, matched entries on the NSP with beneficiary bank accounts in the PFMS, and found several irregularities in the process of disbursing the scholarship amount in Jharkhand and Bihar. The report further added that the scam also roped in schools from Punjab and Assam.
Following the daily’s reports in November, an FIR was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Bihar and several FIRs were filed against at least 103 people in Jharkhand. However, no arrests have been made yet in the case.
According to the report, the middlemen convinced school owners to provide them with details such as login ID and password to access the schools’ NSP accounts. Then, the banking correspondents helped prospective beneficiaries to open their accounts using details such as bank account, Aadhaar cards and fingerprints, before applying for scholarships on behalf of them.
While the beneficiaries remained unaware of the scholarship amount, the middlemen siphoned off the money as soon as it got credited into the beneficiaries’ accounts.
The banking correspondents, while denying their involvement in the scam, submitted a list of schools and students to whom they claimed to have disbursed the amounts. However, the newspaper found a mismatch in their claims and data available on the NSP, the report said. The newspaper reported two instances, supporting their investigation:
“A note from the principal of Today’s English School in Ranchi said that 45 students received the amount in his presence from the ‘bank workers’. However, the NSP data for 2019-20 show that scholarships were given to 213 students, including 186 hostellers, from the school. The principal, Suresh Baitha, said money was given only to 45 students, and the school doesn’t have a hostel.”
A “note from the owner of Itki Carmel School in Ranchi that 35 students received the scholarship money in his presence. However, the NSP shows that 182 students received the scholarship, including 175 hostellers, from the school.”
The school owner Sadique Hussain told Indian Express: “Rajab Ansari approached me with the names of the students and asked me to sign. The amount was not mentioned then.”
