Rs 1800 crore irregularity in backward students' scholarship scheme

Representational photo: PTI

Nagpur: Maharashtra social justice minister Rajkumar Badole, in a written reply to a question, said that there has been an irregular disbursement of Rs 1,826.87 crore under a scholarship programme for students hailing from the backward classes.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former labour minister Hasan Mushrif had raised the question in the Assembly.

Replying to it, Badole said, "An SIT (Special Investigation Team) was formed to investigate the allegations of irregular disbursement of scholarship for OBC students. An audit conducted of 1,704 institutes revealed that the total irregular scholarship disbursement was Rs 1,826.87 crore of which Rs 96.16 crore has been recovered."

He informed that irregularities had been noticed by the SIT in 70 institutes working for the welfare of tribal communities in the state.

While two of these institutes are from the tribal development ministry, 68 are from the social welfare department.

The report stated that the state government is working on filing police complaints against these institutes.

"The recovered amount has been deposited in the state treasury. Rest of the amount is being recovered as per legal procedure," Badole said his reply.