HC seeks reply in 75-crore education scam Shreya Bhandary, TNN Jan 19, 2013, 04.16AM IST Tags: Thane zilla parishad|Forum for Fairness in Education MUMBAI: On Friday, the high court sought a reply from the education officer (primary), the zilla parishad (Thane), the CEO of Thane zilla parishad and the state education secretary by February 22 on a PIL filed by Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE) on a Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scam. The PIL has alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 75 crore in the temporary accommodation under the SSA scheme at Jawahar village in Thane district. The matter came up for hearing on Friday before the bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Mohata, who after hearing the matter and contentions issued show cause notice to the Education Officer (Primary) Jilha Parishad (Thane), the Chief Executive Officer (Jilha Parishad, Thane) and the Secretary, Department of Education, Government of Maharashtra, Mantralaya. They have been asked to respond on or before the n February 22, 2013. The PIL was filed by FFE in 2012. We found there were some irregularities in the scheme which maintains that hostels, schools and educators have to be provided for tribal students, said FFE presidemt Jayant Jain. The NGO took up the matter when one of the respondents of the petition Kavita Pandhare, an extension officer in the department of education was appointed to investigate the matter. Pandhare had only two days to investigate and found out that there were no schools in the addresses provided by SSA. In some places there were building constructed for hostels but no provisions inside the buildings were provided, and in one of the schools there were only 12 students, all bogus, added Jain. He said that the calculations show that funds up to Rs 75 crores shown as spent on the project have been misappropriated by government officials. SSA director A Kale was unavailable for comment.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 05:43:14 +0000
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