In Uttar Pradesh, hundreds of colleges have taken up money under the name of the Dashmesh Scholarship and Student Compensation Scheme. After the disclosure of the case last year, the Enforcement Directorate started the investigation of the case. During the investigation, many shocking revelations took place. It has come to know that hundreds of institutions have embezzled grants worth hundreds of crores in the name of fake students. This is the reason why the Directorate has written a letter to the Directorate of Social Welfare asking for the list of students from the institutes, to whom the documents for grant under the scheme were submitted. According to sources various renowned institutes are involved in this scam.
What is Dashmesh Scheme?
This is a government scheme under which, the government grants the amount of rupees 10,000 to rupees 50,000. , Dashmesh scholarship is given to Scheduled Caste and Muslim girl students in educational institutions of Uttar Pradesh. Earlier this amount used to go directly to the accounts of private institutions. But later the Central Government decided to put this amount in the accounts of the beneficiary students.
How did the scam started?
According to sources, when the scheme began, several such contractors started collecting data on scheduled caste and Muslim girl students in the state. Following that, by partnering with private institutions, the names of such youngsters who did not attend to study were registered as their students. Later, when a government grant was awarded in these pupils’ names, they divided it amongst themselves. Later, when the process of opening students’ accounts using their Aadhaar cards and delivering grants directly to them began, private institutions began keeping the debit cards associated with those young people’s accounts with them. These institutes shared the majority of the funds with the contractors.
Grant given by the government
If we look at the government statistics, in the last seven years, a grant of about 3700 crore rupees has been given till now. According to the sources, private institutions and contractors have grabbed a huge amount out of this.
The amount of grant given throughout the years are as follow:
Financial year/ No. of students applied/ No. of students benefitted Funds disbursed
(Rs. crore)
2014-15: 13,93,365 12,72,915 466.90
2015-16: 13,01,955 10,44,638 355.09
2016-17: 20,47,366 13,64,070 433.74
2017-18: 20,73,531 18,78,452 535.37
2018-19: 21,83,940 18,13,891 564.08
2019-20: 21,85,490 20,22,865 609.72
2020-21: 20,00,302 12,03,476 335.36
The Investigation
In fact, in Mathura, from the financial year 2015-16 to 2019-20, a limited was formed at the directorate level after receiving complaints of scholarship and fee reimbursement in private ITIs. In which a scam of Rs 22.99 crore came to the fore. In this case, along with 71 private institutions, officials of the Social Welfare Department have been suspended and an FIR has also been registered against them. Mathura’s 45 private ITIs and 13 other private institutions were also blacklisted.
SSI Daya Shankar Dwivedi lodged an FIR in Hazrat Ganj Kotwali in the month of March in relation to a similar scam. In this, 18 people including managers and employees of 10 institutions were involved. All these were found accused of scams in the distribution of post-matriculation scholarships under the scheme of the Central and State Governments.
Legal Notice Released
Last month, the Kanpur office of the Enforcement Directorate has written a letter to the Social Welfare Department of the state seeking a list of all such institutions and students who have taken advantage of this scholarship. In this, the Money Laundering Act, information from 2014-15 to 2022-23 has been asked to be made available in a certain format. As a result, there has been a stir in the Social Welfare Department as well. According to Sources this whole game was going on with the involvement of the district social welfare officers.
The social welfare department asked for a list
The Social Welfare Department has started collecting information from all the Districts. Aligarh, Prayagraj, Azamgarh, Bahraich, Ballia, Bareilly, Ayodhya, Farrukhabad, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur, Hardoi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Kushinagar, Lucknow, Maharajganj, Mathura, Mirzapur, Moradabad, Rae Bareli, Sambhal, Shahjahanpur, Sitapur, Sultanpur, Unnao, Barabanki, Varanasi, Chitrakoot, Banda, Agra, Deoria and Jaunpur all districts have been asked to collect data.
Sources say that in this whole matter, many big politicians and the education mafia can get caught in the clutches. Many such leaders are also included in these, who have increased their status by crores of rupees in the last decade. Apart from this, there are many such educational houses, which are recognized as big education groups of the state. This is the reason why there has been a stir in all of them due to the activism of the Enforcement Directorate.
According to the sources, many politicians and educational ministers can be caught red-handed. Many renowned leaders are already involved in this scam and have stolen large amounts of money for years. Apart from this, there are many such educational houses also, which are renowned and recognized as big education groups in the state. Now there is a stir in all of them due to the action taken by the Enforcement Directorate.
