Nagpur schools put 580 fake teachers, staffers on govt portal to draw salary

MUMBAI: Five Nagpur school officers face criminal action for a scam involving fake teachers, causing over ₹100 crore loss to the state since 2019.

MUMBAI: The education department has initiated criminal action against five school education officers from Nagpur for their involvement in a scam related to forgery and authorising inclusion of fake teachers and non-teaching staff in government-aided schools in order to pilfer money through their salaries. This has caused a loss of crores of rupees to the state exchequer, and the department is now verifying from district-level officers if there are similar cases in other districts.

Nagpur schools put 580 fake teachers, staffers on govt portal to draw salary

Twelve schools in Nagpur had fraudulently put 580 fake teachers and non-teaching staff members on the rolls in the ‘Shalarth’ portal to draw a salary in their name. The school education department has been paying these salaries since 2019, leading to a loss of over ₹100 crore to the government according to the preliminary enquiry report.

“The education and officers at the deputy director level, in connivance with school managements, fraudulently registered the names of these teachers and non-teaching staff members on the portal and have been drawing salaries from the government for the last six years,” states the report, a copy of which is with Hindustan Times. “They generated the login ID and password of the education directorate and enrolled the teachers in the 12 schools. The fraud came to light when new officers took over and refused to be part of the fraud. The preliminary enquiry report has been submitted to the education commissioner on March 7 for further action.”

Taking note of the preliminary report, the state government appointed a committee to further probe the matter and propose the action to be taken under the department’s rule book. On the basis of the initial report, the school education department has proposed criminal action against five officers and the recovery of the money. After the preliminary inquiry was conducted, some of the schools paid back the amount that they purloined by way of salaries of the fake staff. Action will also be taken against all the school managements found to be involved in the irregularities.

“We have received the report from the director, and action has been proposed against the officials involved,” said Ranjit Singh Deol, principal secretary, school education department. “The school education minister is expected to take a call on it in the next few days. It is a huge scam, and we have taken serious note of it.” Deol said it was difficult to ascertain the quantum of the loss at this juncture.

Another official from the education department told HT that the department wanted the strictest action to be taken in order to set a precedent. “If the money is not recovered and action is not taken against the offenders, the department could face strictures from the courts, where several cases related to government aid are pending,” he said. “There are 5,844 aided schools, whose teachers’ and non-teaching staff’s salaries are paid by the government.”

The officer said that the schools were connected to political leaders from Nagpur. “There are also a few cases in Solapur and other districts that have come to light, and the department has now asked district-level officers to review them,” he said. “In some cases, government officials at the local level had begun releasing funds to the schools years before the official permission to grant them aid came from the government.”