57,252 fake admissions detected in govt schools

Sat Singh

Tribune News Service

Bhiwani, August 2

The state Education Department has detected 57,252 fake/long absent students at government-run schools under whose names a huge amount of midday meal money was galloped in the last academic session.

Taking note of the irregularity in government schools, the Director, Elementary Education Office (DEEO), has shot off a letter to all district elementary education officers to take disciplinary action against the defaulting teachers.

In a letter, it had directed the DEEOs to recover the money spent by school heads/teachers against projecting the fake strength showed to the Education Department to arrange midday meals for students.

“At primary level, recovery should be made on the basis of Rs3.58 a student per day and Rs5.39 per student a day for the upper primary students,” the letter read.

The directorate has asked the DEEOs to calculate the number of fake students in each school and recover the money from the teacher concerned with penal interest and inform about the same back to the authorities of the implementation of order.

Notably, after reports of the midday meal scam, the directorate had conducted a survey in all government-run schools in the last academic session and, based on their verification of records and ground reality, the startling fact came to light.

In the list of fake enrolments/long absent students, Mewat district tops the notoriety chart with 27,600 students, followed by Palwal (3,564), Sirsa (2,800) and Panipat (2,718).

There are 1,746 fake/long absent students in Mahendragarh — the home town of Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, while 1,359 bogus students are in Jhajjar.

There are 1,642 bogus students in Karnal, the assembly constituency of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. There are 891 bogus admissions in Bhiwani, where the headquarter of the Haryana Board of School Education is located.

Satbir Siwach, DEEO, Bhiwani, said they had received a letter from the directorate and were busy in circulating it to school heads for the verification of such teachers for further action.