SHALARTH ID SCAM Now, school owners, teachers to be cross-examined as part of inquiry

By Vikas Vaidya :

School Education Directorate to submit administrative enquiry report next week

Since the enquiry into the Shalarth scam began, action was limited to the officers. The real beneficiaries like school-owners, teachers were ignored. Various organisations demanded the enquiry should be conducted against the beneficiaries too. Considering this aspect, the State’s School Education Directorate and police are likely to start enquiry against them. Meanwhile, the administrative inquiry into the Shalarth ID scam currently raging in the State being conducted by the State’s Secondary and Higher Secondary Department Director Mahesh Palkar is on the verge of completion. According to highly placed sources, the report of the same would be submitted next week.

So far, the former Deputy Director of Education has been arrested in this case. However, Pay Squad Superintendent Nilesh Waghmare is absconding and one more Superintendent posted in Bhandara too is moving freely. The sources said, action will also be taken against the educational institution directors, principals and teachers involved in this scam.

The scope of this scam widened to Gondia, Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Jalgaon, Pune.

According to sources in Home Ministry, till now, the educational institution directors, teachers and principals were not on record. Now they have also come on record. The enquiry will be initiated against them and those found guilty would not be spared.

In this regard, State Education Commissioner Sachchindra Pratap Singh had come to Nagpur and met Commissioner of Police Dr Ravinder Kumar Singal. They both exchanged some major and significant information. It is learnt that the position of the Education Department is that action should be taken against all those involved in this scam. It is being expressed as a surprise that the mastermind of the Shalarth ID scam, Superintendent of the Pay Department, Nilesh Waghmare, has not been arrested yet. Nilesh Waghmare was suspended on the complaint of former Deputy Director Ulhas Narad in the Shalarth ID scam. In this case, a total of 14 accused, including Secretary of Sambhaji Nagar Education Board and former Deputy Director of Education of Nagpur Division Vaishali Jamdar, Divisional Chairman of the State Education Board Chintaman Wanjari who worked as Primary Education Officer in 2019 when this scam took place, have been arrested so far. Wanjari was the Chairman of the inquiry committee in this case. In this scam, it is alleged that salaries were approved to ineligible teachers by creating bogus Shalarth IDs, using signature of the then Education Officer Someshwar Netam. Netam was Education Officer in 2011-12. He retired in 2014 and passed away in 2016.

Somebody cleverly scanned his signature, which was used while making appointments in 2019. The appointments made in 2019 were shown as that of 2011 carrying the scanned signatures of Netam. A huge amount of arrears too was given to the teachers, which went into the pockets of the institution owners and officers of Pay Squad.

Finance, Education Deptt failed to pin-point scam

Neither Finance Department nor Education Department noticed the scam. Had the officials in these departments studied the excess amount being paid in the form of arrears, they would have realised the scam then and there only. The amount of arrears to the tune of Rs 50 lakh was drawn while making the appointment.

Secondly, the old appointments of over 1,000 teachers made only in Nagpur too remained unnoticed. Surprisingly, nobody could notice the excess load on exchequer or it was ignored deliberately is a million dollar question.

Schools appointed teachers beyond their capacity

The schools made appointments beyond their capacity. For example, one school appointed 40 teachers. A school must have 30-35 children per teacher. If a school appoints 40 teachers, the number of children comes out to 1,400. The said school’s intake capacity is not even 400 students. These schools later on used to show these

teachers as excess and transferred them to other schools. Since teachers and school owners both were aware that the appointments were illegal, but they not only kept mum, but grabbed huge amount disbursed by the Government.