Born in 1945, enrolled in Class II: How private schools siphoned off Rs 600 crore in Madhya Pradesh

A man, who was born two years before Independence, has been shown as a student of class-II in Madhya Pradesh's Barwani. He is enrolled in a private school as beneficiary from an under-privileged family entitled to get benefits under the Right to Education Act.

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan governemnt gives out crores of rupees to private schools every year to bring more and more children from under-privileged families as mandated under the Right to Education Act, 2009.

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has reimbursed close to Rs 600 crore to private schools in the state since 2011 for providing free education to under-privileged children under the Right to Education Act, 2009.

An India Today investigation has revealed that a major portion of that money was siphoned off by private schools and education mafia in the last six years. The nexus provided fake details of the students enrolled under the Right to Education Act.

It has emerged that the scam was being orchestrated across all the districts of Madhya Pradesh since 2011.

HOW IT HAPPENED?

India Today has accessed the complete list of 241 students given by the Jagat Janani Vidya Vihar school Jabalpur for whom fee was reimbursed for the year 2015-16. The list that has been uploaded by the MP government, on its education portal also shows the Samagra IDs of students for whom fee has been reimbursed.

These IDs were found to be fake on the Government of India's Samagra portal - http://samagra.gov.in/. There was not a single genuine student in the list.

The list of students has a student named Sumit Ahirwar of KG-2. The Samagra ID mentioned against his name is 193448019. But, on the Samgra portal, the ID turned out to be that of Deepak Kumar Sonkar, who was born in 1990.

For the year 2014-15, the Jagat Janani School furnished a list of 180 students. The list is completely fake. In the 2014-15 list, Sonkar's ID has been listed against Surbhit Ahirwar of KG-1.

India Today tracked down Sonkar from the address on the Samgra portal only to find that he made a living by selling vegetables on a hand held cart in Jabalpur. Sonkar has no idea how his ID entered the school's list.

"I do not know how my Id is being used. I sell vegetables and all I can say is that strict action should be taken against the school that has stolen and misused my ID," Sonkar while talking to India Todayu said. .

THE SCALE OF SCAM

Jagat Janani is not the only school in Jabalpur that has siphoned off money meant for under-privileged children by giving fake list of students. It has in its rank the Usmania Middle School, Usmania Children School, Smita Children's Academy, Adarsh Gyan Sagar Vidyalaya, Guru Public School and St Abraham Nursery School.

All these schools have taken money from the MP government in the name of educating poor children by furnishing fake lists. The scam is not confined to Jabalpur alone. Madhya Pradesh has got around 40,000 private schools across 51 districts that are divided into 10 administrative divisions.

India Today randomly picked up schools in each of the 10 divisions and found that the scam is evenly spread.

In the Bhopal division that comprises of Bhopal, Raisen, Rajgarh, Sehore and Vidisha districts, India Today team chose the Vivekananad Shiksha Sansthan in Mandideep in Raisen. Here, 64-year-old Chand Mian is shown as Palak Mandore, who is a nursery student. The school had used the IDs of Chand Mian's his 62-year-old wife, 30-year-old daughter-in-law and five-year-old grandson also.

"My grandsons used to study in the school but we used to submit fees for their education. At the time of admission, they had asked for our Samagra ID saying the fees would be waived off and I gave them this print out which has the IDs of the entire family. So, possibly, they picked up the IDs from there and used them. But, our fees were never waived off," Chand Mian told India Today.

In the Gwalior division that comprises of Ashok Nagar, Shiv Puri, Datia, Guna and Gwalior districts, the irregularities in the SKY High Public School Dabra were blatant. Here, 64-year-old Shyamlal has been shown as class-2 student under the name of Sonia Bai. Sixteen-year-old Sunil Adiwasi is shown as a class-I student. Thirty-two-year-old Sanni Bai has been listed as a class-III student and her husband Raju Singh has been shown as her father.

In the Indore division that comprises of Alirajpur, Barwani, Burhanpur, Dhar, Indore, Jhabua, Khandwa and Khargone districts, the details provided by the Madan Mohan Memorial Public School in Barwani were cross checked.

'BORN IN 1945, CLASS-II STUDENT IN MP'

Dhaniram, born in 1945, has been shown as class-II student while 18-year-old Payal Dadu has been shown as Sandeep, who studies in class-III. Most of the IDs used by this school belonged to people from various parts of the state. Dhaniram was located at his village in Jabalpur and Payal at her village in Jhabua.

"My brother studied in class-V in 1962 in Mandla. We have been living in Jabalpur since 1990. We have never been to Badwani. I don't know how this has happened," Doli Ram, Dhaniram's brother told India Today.

Payal Dadu, too, had no idea how her ID was used. "I have never gone to Badwani. I have done my schooling from Jhabua and I will complain to the police about what you are telling me," she said.

The owner of the Barwani school, Magan Lal Singoria first denied that any such thing happened at the Madan Mohan Memorial Public School. But, when confronted him with evidence, he blamed the computer operator who keyed in the IDs.

In the Chambal division, similar irregularities were found with the details provided by the Kaila Devi Shiksha Academy in Bhind district. People shown as students from under-privileged families were found to be working outside Madhya Pradesh.

During India Today investigation, not a single district of Madhya Pradesh was found free from the RTE irregularities. Schools provided fake data and received reimbursement from the education department in the name of Right to Education scheme.

The modus operandi by the errant private schools also betrays the lack of cross-checking by the education department, which disbursed about Rs 600 crore to these schools in six years.