November 10, 2020.
TED NewsDesk, Assam: Out of 21 accused of Assam pre-Matric scholarship scam, the police arrested five school teachers. The scam involved the embezzlement of a large sum of money meant for the scholarship of minority students between 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Mahmood Hassan, Director, Assam Minority Development Board filed an FIR along with the state nodal officer of Pre-matric Scholarship for Minorities. On August 28, they complained regarding the misappropriation of fund granted for the pre-Matric scholarship since 2018. The state CID conducted an enquiry following which the police arrested the accused.
“Based on evidence collected during the investigation so far, 21 persons have been apprehended by the CID with the support of local police in Goalpara, Darrang, Kamup and Dhubri districts as a result of coordinated search operations on multiple places which started on October 8,” stated Assam police.
The pre-Matric scholarship is a programme initiated by the union ministry of minority affairs. The centre provides the minority candidates who score 50% or above in the former exams. Moreover, their family income remains less than or equal to 1 lakh. The students satisfying both the criteria can apply online for classes from Std. I to X under the scheme for minority communities. The government follows Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), an online transaction mode, to sanction the amount.
The police elaborated about their take on the issue. The state police also assured that they are looking into the matter closely to reach upon a conclusion. It arrested a total of 21 alleged to be guilty. Four of them are headmasters of school, one president of School Management Committee, a teacher, ten middlemen, etc. Police confiscated 217 photographs of students, 173 pre-Matric scholarship, 104 bonafide students certificate, 11 bank passbooks and three laptops.
In yet another scam, the Assam police arrested many people involved in electing sub-inspectors in the state police. The minorities scholarship swindle many weeks after this.
Looking from the lens of the upcoming Assembly elections (next year), these scams are not healthy for BJP. It is contrary to the fact that the ruling party claimed to transform Assam into a corruption-free state post its win in 2016.
Source: Deccan Herald
