Over Rs. 250 crore Scholarship Scam in Himachal Pradesh University

The rot in the Department of Education in Himachal Pradesh recently came to light as two major scams were unearthed recently which include a Rs. 250 crore scholarship scam and a prospectus scam worth over Rs. 90 lakh.

The Himachal Pradesh University gives a full refund of fees to its Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste students. These funds are managed by the University’s accounts department. A student from the University told Newsclick, “Let’s say that the fees of a particular course is Rs. 7,200, SC and ST students get a full refund of the fees after the academic session comes to an end.”

Even though this is the customary practice, students have not been receiving their scholarship since 2016 and the misappropriated funds are now pegged at a whopping Rs. 250 crore.

Students had been agitating about the scholarships not being given on time since 2017 under the Congress government in the state. When the BJP government came to power last year, the Chief Minister Mr. Jairam Thakur assured the students that there would be a fair probe into the matter and the scholarships would be disbursed on time.

Also Read: Scholarship Scam in HP: Students Suffer as the Governments Remain Apathetic

CM Silent despite Students’ Protest

Now, even after completing a year in power, the CM has suddenly gone silent on the issue. The police authorities in its inquiry were unable to reach any conclusion where forth the demand for a CBI inquiry was raised by students.

According to sources, after a discussion on this issue with its council members, CM Jairam Thakur had said that there would be a CBI inquiry in this matter but now there seems to be no sign of any such inquiry.

The police authorities are saying that until and unless the CBI takes up the matter, they will continue to investigate this matter. Whereas, on the other hand, the Home Ministry is waiting for the Police department to raise a demand for shifting the case to CBI.

Vikram Kaith, General secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) told Newsclick, “This is a huge matter. Now, they are only trying to shelter the people involved in this by not letting the CBI handle the case. Many officials right from top bureaucrats will definitely be involved in this. If they don’t handover the case to CBI, students are set to launch massive agitation.”

Also Read: SFI-HPU Erupts In Protests: “Reinstate Our Democratic Right”

Prospectus Scam

In another major scam which also points fingers at the current BJP rule of the state, is the ongoing Rs. 90 lakh prospectus scam in the International Centre of Open Learning of HPU also called ICDOL or DCC.

According to reports, HPU authorities were forced to put an ICDOL official Babu Ram under suspension after his alleged involvement in the prospectus scam. The employee did not deposit ICDOL funds raised after the sale of prospectus to the tunes of more than Rs. 90 lakh.

The entire scam was unearthed by a sleuth of the Audit Controller General of Himachal Pradesh following an anonymous complaint.

“Apparently, the employee would deposit- say Rs. 30,000 in the account and enter Rs. 1,30,000 in the official record against the same deposit. They have suspended the employee. But the bigger question is that if such a thing was taking place since 2012, why did the authorities never find out about this in its audit? How can discrepancies of such an amount go unnoticed by the university’s accounts department? By suspending the employee, the bigger issue does not get resolved. There should be an FIR and a police complaint but so far no FIR or complaint has been lodged. It directly means that more employees have to be involved in such a case that the University is trying to shelter,” an official in HPU told Newsclick, on condition of anonymity.

With two huge scams being unearthed in the University, students are questioning the credibility of the Vice Chancellor and the state government, and are also alleging that the BJP is giving a free hand to officials to indulge in corruption in the University. This is going on even as the CM every now and then insists that his Government will not be involved in any political vendetta like the previous government, and those involved in the scams and corruption will not be spared.