Recover Rs 1-cr dues from 79 Punjab schools, DEOs told

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, December 10

The School Education Department has asked the District Education Officers (DEOs) to make a recovery of Rs 1.40-crore from 79 private senior secondary schools in the state.

Post-matric scholarship fraud

• The amount was paid to these schools under the post-matric scholarship scheme during 2016-17
• In an audit by the Social Security Department, many discrepancies were found in the payment of this scholarship to students
• Some students were either not eligible for it or it was claimed by faking enrolment data

The amount was paid to these schools under the post-matric scholarship scheme during 2016-17. However, during an audit by the Social Security Department, many discrepancies were found in the payment of this scholarship to students, who were either not eligible for it or it was claimed by faking enrolment data.

Sending details of the recoverable amount, the Director General School Education (DGSE) has asked the DEOs to make the recovery of the amount from the schools. Maximum, nine of these schools are in Sangrur, followed by seven each in Barnala, Gurdaspur and Ropar, six in Hoshiarpur, five each in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Pathankot, four in Fatehgarh Sahib and three each in Ferozepur, Mohali and Kapurthala.

It is alleged that in the performance audit of the implementation of the post-matric scholarship scheme, many discrepancies and inconsistencies in data generated through web portals was found. The scholarship is provided by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to give financial assistance to students belonging to Scheduled Castes, studying at post-matriculation or post-secondary stage, to enable them to complete their education.

In the audit report, it was found that in Punjab, 3,684 of 57,986 post-matric students in 49 of the 60 selected institutes in six districts left the courses mid-session during 2012-17. However, fee and maintenance allowance of Rs 14.31 crore in respect of these students was claimed by these institutions from the department.

After receiving the orders to make recovery from the DGSE office, the DEOs are facing a difficult time. In absence of any power to issue directions to these private schools, it is difficult for the DEOs to make recovery from private institutions. Moreover, in its letter to the DEOs, the education department has only mentioned the recoverable amount and there is no detail about how it was calculated, rued officials in the DEO office.

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