he Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has carried out search operations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act at 24 locations in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi in the case of Himachal Pradesh Scholarship Scam.

The ED initiated investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh in connection with the scholarship disbursed by Directorate of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh under Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme for SC/ST/OBC Students. PMLA searches were conducted on officials of the State Education Department, banks and owners of entities related to private universities and institutions which were involved in large scale misappropriation of disbursement of scholarship funds, the ED said in a statement.

“During the search operations, unaccounted cash of Rs 75 lakh was seized and an amount of Rs 2.55 crore lying in the bank accounts was frozen. Various incriminating documents and digital devices have also been seized from various locations,” it added.

Kumar Chellappan n KOCHI

Though the intelligentsia proclaims Kerala as a role model for the rest country it is far from truth. On Chingam 1, which fell on August 17 this year, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, hosted some special guests in the Raj Bhavan.  A group of six children from Kozhikode travelled all the way to Thiruvananthapuram at the invitation of the first citizen of the State and spent hours with him. What makes the visit of this children to the Raj Bhavan  unique is the fact that they belong to the Scheduled Caste community (Harijans) and they are from the Government owned Welfare Lower Primary School at Perambra in Kozhikode district. This is the only school of its kind which is meant for chidren hailing from Harijan community. When asked why there were only six children in this school,  the authorities replied: “Parents of children belonging to upper caste would not send their children to this school because of untouchability”.

What is disturbing is the fact that the school was established in 1956 which means that untouchability continues with impunity in the State where the Communists have an upper hand. The media in Kerala literally celebrated for days the incident from Uttar Pradesh where a Muslim boy was slapped by his colleagues but the plight of this school has been blacked out by the media here, showing double standards.