Funds worth hundreds of crores of rupees allocated by the government for providing dresses for schoolchildren in Uttar Pradesh are being siphoned off by officials, finds an expose by CobraPost, an investigative website.
The government allocates a budget of roughly Rs. 200 per uniform, but the officials get the uniform made at much cheaper rates and take about Rs. 70-80 as “cut” or “commission,” revealed the year-long investigation on dozens of education and district-level officials in over a dozen blocks of six districts in the State.
The officials who take a “commission” in the contract for school uniform of students include District Education Officers, block education officers, gram and nagar panchayat officials. Even school teachers and headmasters manage to get a cut of the commission.
The districts covered as part of the expose are Gautam Budh Nagar, Meerut, Hapur, Bagpat, Ghaziabad and Kanpur.
According to investigative journalist Aniruddha Bahal, the founder of CobraPost, “ In the year, 2013-14, about Rs. 710 crore was released to the Uttar Pradesh government by the Centre as grant to provide uniforms to school-going children in villages. It seems a large chunk of this annual grant goes into the pockets of officials of the Education Department.”
“Our reporter meets these officials in the guise of a supplier of school uniforms. What they say on hidden camera throws light on a huge scam involving the large chain of bureaucrats, gram panchayat officials, and even school teachers. This is a sad state of affairs considering the fact that the uniforms are meant for poor students,” he added.
In the videos shot by the CobraPost representative, officials from the Department of Education are seen telling him that they wanted commission because they have to satisfy people at every level so that no body raises any objection. They are seen talking about ‘finer ways’ of indulging in corruption in the contract of school uniform.
“For instance, the officials told our investigative journalist that they will provide him the contract of supplying uniform to all the schools in the block if he prepares bills on the names of three firms as contract can’t be given to just one firm,” Mr. Bahal added. “Officials seem to be more interested in using the free uniforms scheme to make a quick buck,” he said.
When The Hindu contacted Vinod Kumar, Block Education Officer in Meerut who is shown in the sting operation as saying: “Everything is possible for a commission,” he denied meeting the CobraPost representative.
Sting operation throws light on graft in award of school uniforms’ contracts
