The MATHURA district administration has issued notice to 71 private Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) asking them to pay around Rs 23 crore for allegedly being involved in irregularities in scholarship and fees reimbursements.
The administration issued notices to the ITIs on the basis of inquiry conducted by the UP Social Welfare Department which found involvement of these ITIs in fraudulent disbursement of crores of rupees.
“Notices have been issued to 71 private ITIs of the district asking them to pay Rs 22.98 cores, the loss calculated by the department during its inquiry. The Social Welfare Department conducted an inquiry of three financial years — between 2015-16 and 2019-20,” said District Social Welfare Officer (Mathura) Rama Shankar Gupta.
The inquiry was conducted on a complaint of a local resident who had alleged large-scale fraud by the institutes.
Gupta added that if the institutes failed to deposit money, then legal action would be taken against them.
According to Gupta, few institutes misappropriated money by showing it as having been disbursed to non-existing students on the basis of fake and fictitious documents.
“At a few institutes, students were given admission beyond the specified limit and they were also given the scholarship. In few cases, several students were found to have the same details, including name and father’s name, in the record. Few ITIs, which are not recognised, also found to have got the scholarship, said Gupta.
An FIR was also lodged in January against the managers of 62 ITIs and government officials, including former district welfare officer Karunesh Tripathi, for fraud. The case was lodged under IPC sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant or by banker, merchant or agent) and 468 (cheating).
No one has been arrested in the case so far.
The state government had suspended Karunesh Tripathi last December on the basis of the inquiry report.
“Another complaint against nine ITIs was filed later. At present, the police are conducting inquiry against 71 ITIs in the fraud case,” said Gupta.
