The issue of minority students’ scholarship scam is expected to be raised in the next Cabinet meeting as State finance minister Rameshwar Oraon on Tuesday said that such kind of scams must not go unnoticed.
“All of us were busy in the bye-election hence I could not get time to speak to the Chief Minister. But this is a serious issue that money meant for minority students has been syphoned-off. Though no clear and concrete picture of the scam has emerged so far, complaints are pouring from different districts and one thing is sure that the scam has been committed in a very systematic way. I am going to raise this matter in the next Cabinet meeting,” the Minister said.
Oraon alleged that corruption was institutionalized during the regime of erstwhile BJP-AJSU Party government headed by Chief Minister Raghubar Das.
“Nothing can be worse than the fact that children now have to pay the price of corruption. However, the Chief Minister has said that the scam will be investigated and I am hopeful that this will be taken on priority basis and investigation by vigilance will be ordered,” said the Minister.
Meanwhile, the State government has stopped students’ verification process for the financial year 2019-2020 in the wake of fingers raised on ‘pre-matric scholarship’.
It is now clear that the State government on more than one occasion was warned either by concerned ministry or the citizen.
On July 5 last year a letter was shot by the ministry of Minority Affairs that the verification process of students is being compromised in Jharkhand. The Ministry had also shot a letter to the office of Jharkhand Chief Secretary that repeated attempts to subvert the National Scholarship Portal.
Teachers of Madrasa Alia Arabia in Ranchi had lodged a complaint to Jharkhand Anti-Corruption Bureau that 102 students of their school have been shown among beneficiaries for 2019-2020 who in fact are fake.
On July 22, last year Jharkhand Anti-Corruption Bureau shot this complaint to the Vigilance Department for further direction but no action was taken.