Rs 11-crore mid-day meal scam unearthed in UP’s Balrampur, 5 arrested

A scam of nearly Rs 11 crore in the mid-day meal scheme was brought to light in Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district, leading to an FIR against 45 people and the arrest of five individuals, including a village head and an assistant teacher, police said on Thursday.

The district Basic Siksha Adhikari lodged a complaint at the city police station on Thursday, alleging over Rs 11 crore scam by manipulation of government records for the mid-day meal programme, Superintendent of Police (SP) Vikas Kumar said.

According to the complaint, the fraud was committed by tampering with Excel sheets generated on the department’s IVRS portal, which records the number of students enrolled in schools.

Based on these numbers, the government allocates funds using conversion cost calculations. After approval by the district magistrate, the sanctioned Excel sheet should be uploaded on the portal concerned for direct transfer to school accounts.

However, instead of uploading the original document, the accused allegedly inflated amounts for select schools and reduced funds for others, ensuring that the total amount remained unchanged and thus escaped detection.

Police said the extra funds transferred to favoured schools were withdrawn and shared among the headmasters, village heads and school management committee presidents involved.

Those arrested include Firoz Ahmad, Ashok Kumar (headmaster), Naseem Ahmad (village head), Mohammad Ahmedul Qadri (committee president) and Malik Munawwar (assistant teacher).    The SP said further investigation is underway, and more arrests are expected.