Odisha EOW arrests retired officer for Rs 36 lakh scholarship scam

BHUBANESWAR: The economic offences wing (EOW) of the state Crime Branch on Thursday arrested a retired official of the state higher education department in connection with a scholarship scam involving Rs 36 lakh.
The accused, Prakash Chandra Rath, had allegedly disbursed the scholarship money among several ineligible and unmeritorious students illegally under the e-Medhabruti scheme during his tenure as an under secretary of the department in 2014-15. Rath, who was in-charge of the scholarship section in the higher education department, had retired from government service in 2016.
The EOW had registered a case against Rath on October 31, 2017 based on a complaint from the higher education department. The department had come to know about massive financial mismanagement and irregularities in the payment of the e-Medhabruti (scholarship) to many ineligible students in 2014-15, causing huge loss to the government exchequer.
“During investigation, we found that Rath had conspired with some other persons and sanctioned scholarships to the tune of about Rs 36.10 lakh in favour of 235 ineligible students. He had violated the existing guidelines for selection of students for the scholarship awards,” an EOW official said.
According to the existing norms, students need to apply for the scholarships. The colleges concerned are supposed to verify the authenticity of the applicants and send the applications to the government for the grant of the scholarships. It was the responsibility of Rath to place the applications before the financial adviser for the sanction of the scholarships. However, the EOW found that Rath had sanctioned the scholarships without getting any validation from the colleges concerned and without the approval of the financial adviser.
“We strongly suspect that he committed the fraud for his personal gain and may have taken commission from the ineligible beneficiaries. Some of the illegal beneficiaries do not belong to Odisha. The suspected involvement of others, including a few staff of the higher education department, is being examined,” the EOW official said.
Under the e-Medhabruti scheme, a Plus II student can get Rs 3,000 scholarship annually for two years, a Plus III student can get Rs 5,000 annually for three years and a PG student is eligible to get Rs 10,000 annually for two years. Besides, the government provides Rs 10,000 scholarship annually to students who want to pursue technical and professional courses. According to the norms, the income of the parents of the applicants shall not exceed Rs 6 lakh per annum.
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