Indian Express: Pune: Thursday,
June 13, 2013.
The State
Higher Education Department seems to have no clue on how Rs 7 crore granted for
scholarships of students was spent and whether the money has actually reached
the beneficiaries or not. The Utilisation Certificates (UCs) of the amount is
pending.
A government
report, a copy of which The Indian Express has procured under the RTI, reveals
that UCs of Rs 6,64,03,748 (Rs 6.64 crore) granted for “post matric
scholarship” and Rs 45,00,000 (Rs 45 lakh) for Ekalavya Scholarship are
pending.
The
Department draws the amount from the state treasury through the Drawing and
Distribution Office, which is distributed to various branches under the Higher
Education Department as per demand. The scholarship cell distributes the money
to regional offices that in turn distribute it to colleges and schools. The
department is supposed to verify how the money was utilised and whether it was
utilised for the designated purpose. Without the UCs, there is no way of
knowing how many students actually benefited.
“Post Matric
Scholarship was introduced by the Central Government in 2007-08 for
economically backward students from minority communities like Muslim, Parsi,
Sikh, and Christian to increase employment opportunities. The Director of
Higher Education is the nodal officer for the scheme. It was observed that
during 2010-11, a grant of Rs 15,83,61,254 was sanctioned in 3 phases of Rs
9,66,88,115, Rs 5,02,98,364 and Rs 1,13,74,775. Of that Rs 14,99,36,918 was
distributed and UCs of Rs 8,35,33,170 obtained. UCs of Rs 6,64,03,748 are
pending from Pune, Aurangabad, Nanded and Panvel,” states the report.
“Out of the
balance of Rs 84,24,336 (Rs 15,83,61,254 minus Rs 14,99,36,918) Rs 43,30,434
has been distributed on January 20, 2012 and Rs 40,93,902 is still undisbursed
at Director of Higher Education level,” said the report.
From UCs
received from Jalgaon, Mumbai and Nagpur for 2010-11, it was observed that Rs
37,17,829, Rs 4,94,250 and Rs 19,87,649 respectively were undisbursed as on
March 31, 2012, it says.
“Ekalavya
Scholarship Scheme was started for financial assistance for poor but brilliant
students to continue their post graduation education. An amount of Rs 5,000 per
student is being paid as financial assistance. Scrutiny of records of
scholarship branch for 2010-11 revealed that Rs 63,00,000 has been paid as
grant in aid to colleges in 2010-11. Scrutiny showed that UCs of Rs 18,00,000
have been received till date (31.5.2012) and UCs of Rs 45,00,000 were still
pending,” says the report.
When
contacted, officials at the scholarship cell said, “We have not done anything
wrong. The problem is that colleges don’t send utilisation report on time. Due
to this, we are not able to show UCs at the time of audit. The amount taken by
us is given to all colleges but they delay their response. Plus there are
various departments like MCVC, ITI, Technical Diploma and Medical Diploma that
don’t actually come under us. Hence even if we ask them to submit details on
time, it never happens or it happens very late. We will furnish all documents
as soon as possible.”
No cashbook
in scholarship department:
The RTI reply
also shows that the department had been pulled up for non-maintenance of
cashbook in the scholarship branch. “It was noticed that the scholarship branch
was not maintaining cashbook and hence grants received for all scholarship
grants distributed by the Department, balance grants and scholarships not
claimed by students etc could not be estimated at a glance. So cashbook in
proper format should be maintained. In its absence, a fair view of transactions
cannot be certified,” the report said. Officials at the scholarship cell
explained, “There is only one cashbook for the entire department. Individual
cells do not maintain cashbooks. But we will do it from now on.”
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