The State BJP on Wednesday defended the former BJP Government headed by former Chief Minister Raghubar Das on alleged corruption charges in distribution of pre-matric scholarship for 2019-2020. State BJP spokesperson, Pratul Shahdeo defending the previous government said that the former government when came to know about anomalies in funds transfer, the Jharkhand State Minority Finance and Development Corporation, the nodal agency of the state government, immediately took steps in this matter.
Shahdeo said that Chief Minister Hemant Soren is unnecessary politicizing the issue as Soren raised the issue a day before the Dumka bypoll. He said that the present government is distorting facts to take political advantage. Shahdeo said that the Chief Minister sitting on the Constitutional post blamed the previous government before the investigation report came out.
The BJP spokesperson said that pre-matriculation, post matriculation and merit-cum-means scholarship for minority students by Central Government’s National Scholarship Portal is sent to students’ accounts directly through DBT. In this, the institutions and minority students of the institute enter their information and application directly on the portal.
Pratul said that the Secretary of the Ministry of Minority Affairs of the Central Government had asked the State Government to verify the information of beneficiaries, institutions and schools of this scheme through letter no. 8-3 / 2019-SS, dated 5 July 2019.
In the light of the letter and list of the beneficiaries received from the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, the Jharkhand State Minority Finance and Development Corporation, the State government’s nodal agency, scrutinized the beneficiary students and institutions receiving funds. After the scrutiny the number of beneficiaries institutions were reduced from 46000 to 3100. Similarly, out of nearly two lakh students’ application, only 95,000 were given scholarship, which was done due to action by the government headed by Raghubar Das government, he added.
Shahdeo claimed that on several occasions the Jharkhand State Minority Finance and Development Corporation sought information from districts seeking fund allocations. The Jharkhand State Minority Finance and Development Corporation, the nodal agency for this scholarship scheme, wrote a letter to all District Welfare Officers on July 5, 2019, asking them to take information about schools, colleges, institutes and students studying in the districts.
Information of total number of classes, number of students studying, number of minority students, user ID allotted to the institute, password and user ID and the name of the worker using the password and mobile number and the name of the principal and the mobile number of the investigating officer was sought by the Corporation. Jharkhand State Minority Finance and Development Corporation again wrote to all District Welfare Officer Jharkhand on 8 July 2019, verifying all the points of this ongoing programme at the district level and sought a report related to the current situation.
After this, Jharkhand State Minority Finance and Development Corporation wrote a letter to the District Welfare Officer of all the districts on 10 July 2019, once again seeking the physical verification of schools, colleges, institutions, number of students, etc.
