Sarkar orders probe into education 'scam'

AGARTALA: Following pressure from the opposition, the Left Front government in Tripura on Tuesday said it would institute an inquiry against officials involved in admitting SC, ST and OBC students in non-recognised institutions in Karnataka under a government scholarship.
Chief minister Manik Sarkar also directed the tribal welfare department to facilitate the admission of the affected students elsewhere.
A total of 348 students, all beneficiaries of a state government scheme for SC, ST and OBC students wanting to get a BSc (nursing) and General Nursing and Midwifery certificate outside the state, were admitted in nine non-recognized institutions in the southern state allegedly as part of a 'financial deal' between corrupt officials and the institutions.
Strong protests by opposition parties, especially Trinamool Congress, prompted the state government to cancel the scholarship scheme last week.
According to Trinamool MLA Sudip Roy Barman, the sponsored institutions neither had basic infrastructure nor did they have proper teachers, hostels or classrooms.
"We constituted a high-powered committee to select the institutions for nursing courses across the country. The committee not only verified the documents submitted by the institutions, it also visited them before sponsoring students," said tribal welfare minister Naresh Jamatia.
Opposition MLAs, however, said corrupt officials had taken Rs 1 lakh each from the candidates as admission fee. Once the students got admitted, they found out that they had been duped.
Guardians of the affected students urged the department to bring back their wards. The government initiated the return process but sent a fresh lot of wait-listed students to the institutions by collecting Rs 1 lakh from each of them, opposition MLAs said.