The Maharashtra government is probing the likelihood of its non-residential hostel scheme for students in Beed being used to siphon off funds by including the names of fake beneficiaries. Non-residential hostels in Beed provide food to students of upto Class VIII whose parents migrate for work.
The scheme in zilla parishad schools was launched in 2012-13, and aims to prevent the migration of students with their parents, since it results in them dropping out of school. Rs 20 crore is spent every year on this, and even students who study in other institutes can partake of meals twice a day in these schools. Drought-affected Beed sees distress migration of around 3 lakh people.
"We found that the number of students was around 10 per cent less than what's shown in the records," Amol Yedage, CEO, Beed zilla parishad, said.
While the scheme has around 30,000 students on record, an inspection earlier this month revealed around 3,000 were missing. "School authorities have to give us an estimated number of students who will have food there. We conducted the inspection before payments were made," he explained.
He said around Rs 1,430 is allocated per student per month, or over Rs 25 lakh for the 3,000 missing children. "Show-cause notices have been issued to principals. Until they explain further, we cannot take any action. We also can't say that (bogus or ghost beneficiaries) account for the missing names," he said.
Rajesh Gaikwad, education officer of Beed ZP, said further investigation is needed to reveal if the children who were shown to be missing on the day of the inspection were indeed bogus beneficiaries. "Last year too, we issued bills for schools based on the numbers that were revealed in the inspection. We will do the same this year," he said.
In Shirur Kasar, for instance, Rs 1,430 is given per student per month for a period of six months, to allow them to make their own arrangements for food.