1.9k plaints in tab scheme among 16L beneficiaries
Times of India | 16 November 2024
12 Kolkata: Just 1,911 of the total 16,00,000 (or 0.1%) students who are eligible for a Rs 10,000 grant credited to their bank accounts for buying tablet computers under Bengal govt's ‘Taruner Swapno' scheme have complained of not receiving the money, police said on Friday. The cops have traced 107 more instances of bank account details being compromised, but those students have yet to file official complaints.
State govt's direct benefit scheme, meant for students of classes 11 and 12, aims to bridge the digital divide by providing them money to purchase tablet computers and smartphones.
CM Mamata Banerjee on Friday said an interstate gang was at work in the funds irregularities, adding the state administration had been handling the investigation in a "rough and tough" (indicating "strong")manner. She said govt had already started reallocating funds to students who have been deprived of the money.
"Scamsters hijacked several projects in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, but we are the ones who were able to nab them," Banerjee said on Friday morning. "Our administration is very strong. It is very rough and tough. We have already arrested six persons and constituted an SIT. Those who are yet to get the tab money need not worry. The re-disbursement process has begun," she added.
The police, investigating the siphoning of funds, said fraudsters were aware of the entire process in which data was collected from students in schools and scrutinised and uploaded on the education department portal before being sent to the finance department for funds disbursal.
The cops also suspect that the bank account numbers were possibly switched when the schools sent the details to district inspectors, as most of them had either retained the password against the initial school code given by the education department, or had them changed to simple ones that were easy to guess.
ADG South Bengal Supratim Sarkar said 11 persons, three among them from Baishnabnagar in Malda and Chopra in North Dinajpur, had been arrested in the fraud so far in the 93 cases that had been lodged across Bengal. "These persons were also involved in scams in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Rajasthan, where funds under direct benefit schemes were transferred to their accounts. Funds from the National Scholarship Portal landed in their accounts. We are investigating whether there are more interstate gangs involved," Sarkar said.
Another officer said that the fraudsters had attempted to target more students from different schools, but had been unsuccessful. "Hackers were able to change the bank account numbers of some students in schools where the passwords were weak," the officer said.