lokayukta Justice (retired) NK Mehrotra dispatched a letter to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, alerting him that how the bureaucracy and senior educational officer were illegally distributing salaries to staff of Colvin Talqudars College. Terming it as `Salary Sharing Scam” in the state government, Mehrotra reportedly mentioned in his letter requesting Akhilesh Yadav to immediate take cognizance before the education department officials would misuse their power to distribute salaries in the name of directions from the Court.
``In none of the orders of the Apex or the High Court, directions have been given to state government to release salaries to teachers of Colvin but still the principal secretary (secondary education) and district inspector of school misguided the government and illegally sanctioned salaries, thus resulting into huge loss to state ex-chequer”, Mehrotra reportedly appraised to the chief minister while requesting him to intervene before Salary Sharing Scam would incur further loss to the government. Sources said that Yadav had also reacted to the letter and had asked the minister concerned to review the matter and take action accordingly.
It may be mentioned that Mehrotra had already served notices to Principal secretary (secondary education) Jitendra Kumar, along with the district inspector of school in lucknow, Umesh Tripathi, asking them to reply to the charges which have already proved true in the primarily enquiry conducted in the alleged ``Salary Sharing Scam’ to Colvin College teachers. `The Pioneer’ had already published that the said two officers fell into trouble after state ombudsman went ahead with registration of case against them into the alleged irregularities made by the government in distribution of perks to some teachers of Colvin Taluqdars (UP Board Section).
Sources confirmed that while the two officers told lokayukta that they gave salaries to those teachers who were expelled by Colvin College management as action against them (teachers) was not legal. DIOS claimed that until his consent was taken, no teacher could be deemed as `expelled’. However, in an affidavit submitted before the Supreme Court in the said matter, Umesh Tripathi, as well as former DIOS, Ganesh, had claimed that since Colvin not comes under government aided school so they had nothing to do with expulsion and it was for Colvin Management to decide on it.
Sources further confirmed that the probe also showed that SC never directed the state government to give salaries to teachers but had just said that the classes should be run and if management needs help, the government could give some monetary help but only for running classes and not salary that too directly in teachers account. Taking above aspects into consideration, lokayukta registered a case against Jitendra Kumar and Umesh Tripathi in the last week.
Earlier during primarily enquiry, Jitendra Kumar and Umesh Tripathi both reportedly confessed that they had disbursed remuneration to teachers of Colvin Taluqdars College directly without any court directions and that the payments was made even when the college was not a government aided institution. However, the two also pleaded their innocence in the matter clarifying that the payment has been made either as per the latest government order in this regard or due to compulsion.
Interestingly, they also revealed before Mehrorta, that on basis of payment of salaries to the teaching staff, now the non-teaching staff also went to High Court and got a similar order in his favour directing to clear their dues also. Surprisingly, the government so far not challenged the HC’s direction on the ground that salaries could not be paid from their account as the college not comes under government aided institution. The college authorities, however, reportedly filed an appeal in this regard to review the judgment.