Pre-Matric scholarship rip-off: Jharkhand cracks down, key official suspended

STEPPING UP its crackdown, the Jharkhand authorities has suspended a key district welfare official in Dhanbad for not following due course of and accepting functions with out verification for the Centre’s pre-Matric scholarships for poor minority college students.
This is the primary punitive step taken by the state towards any of its officers after it launched a probe into the unlawful diversion of the scholarship, by a nexus of middlemen, faculty authorities, banking correspondents and authorities employees, based mostly on the findings of an investigation by The Indian Express.
Separately, the Jharkhand State Co-operative Bank has frozen the accounts of two banking correspondents in Ranchi for his or her alleged involvement within the rip-off.
Last week, the state authorities issued an order inserting Dhanbad District Welfare Officer Dayanand Dubey underneath suspension “with immediate effect for not following due process in conducting any inquiry resulting in illegal disbursement of the scholarship amount”.

The official’s identify figures in an FIR registered in Dhanbad in November that accused a pc operator on the District Welfare Office of allegedly registering colleges on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) for the scholarship with out Dubey’s signature.
Dhanbad is among the many six districts in Jharkhand, other than Ranchi, Latehar, Ramgarh, Lohardaga and Sahibganj, the place The Indian Express discovered that the nexus colluded to dupe gullible dad and mom and college students, and arrange faux beneficiaries, whereas real candidates had been overlooked.
Explained: What is Jharkhand’s pre-matric scholarship rip-off?
During its investigation, The Indian Express matched entries on the NSP with beneficiary financial institution accounts within the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) to seek out a number of circumstances of the scholarship being illegally diverted in Jharkhand and Bihar. It discovered that the rip-off additionally roped in colleges from Punjab and Assam.
The preliminary findings of this newspaper’s ongoing investigation, printed in a collection of stories beginning November, led to the registration of an FIR by the CBI in Bihar and separate FIRs throughout Dhanbad by the Jharkhand police towards 103 individuals. No arrests have been made but.
Subsequently, the Dhanbad administration discovered alleged irregularities and corruption in disbursal price about Rs 10 crore involving a gaggle of middlemen based mostly in Chatra district.
In 2019-20, the Ministry of Minority Affairs disbursed Rs 61 crore underneath this scheme to Jharkhand. Under the scholarship, college students from Class 1 to five obtain Rs 1,000 per yr, and college students of Class 6 to 10 obtain Rs 5,700 a yr if they’re day students or Rs 10,700 if they’re in a hostel.
The Indian Express reported that in a number of circumstances, middlemen satisfied faculty house owners to supply their establishment’s login ID and password on the NSP, or use a faux faculty letter pad to acquire them. Then, they concerned banking correspondents to open accounts of potential beneficiaries utilizing their Aadhaar playing cards and fingerprints earlier than making use of for scholarships on their behalf.

This newspaper discovered that as quickly because the scholarship is credited, the middlemen siphon off the cash: they both strike a take care of the beneficiaries or colleges, or the beneficiaries stay unaware and the cash is cut up between the brokers, banking correspondents, and college employees.
Following up on these stories, which recognized banking correspondents Hashim Ansari and Rajab Ansari from Urguttu in Ranchi’s Kanke block, the Jharkhand State Co-operative Bank (JSCB) froze their accounts and sought explanations from them.
In their written response, the 2 denied any involvement, described the fees as “baseless” and submitted an inventory of colleges together with college students to whom they claimed to have disbursed the quantities.

However, these responses, which had been accessed by the Indian Express, present a mismatch of their claims and information out there on the NSP.
For occasion, their responses embrace a be aware from the principal of Today’s English School in Ranchi that 45 college students acquired the quantity in his presence from the “bank workers”. However, the NSP information for 2019-20 present that scholarships got to 213 college students, together with 186 hostelllers, from the varsity. The principal, Suresh Baitha, stated cash was given solely to 45 college students. “My school does not have a hostel,” he stated.
Similarly, the responses embrace a be aware from the proprietor of Itki Carmel School in Ranchi that 35 college students acquired the scholarship cash in his presence. However, the NSP reveals that 182 college students acquired the scholarship, together with 175 hostellers, from the varsity. School proprietor Sadique Hussain stated: “Rajab Ansari approached me with the names of the students and asked me to sign. The amount was not mentioned then.”
JSCB CEO Prem Prakash stated: “As soon as we received information of their alleged involvement, we froze their accounts. Their records are being scrutinised. We haven’t activated their accounts yet.”