Bihar8217;s schools for scandal

Besides Jayaprakash Yadav and minister of state for education Jitan Ram Manjhi, a senior IAS official Chintu Nayak, several vice chancellors and seniors bureaucrats too were accused in the case.

Yadav resigned from the Rabri ministry after a special vigilance court in Patna issued a warrant of arrest against him in 2000; Majhi went underground for a while before surrendering in the court. Both the former ministers spent nearly one year in jail and then got bail. State education secretary S K Negi and former vice-chancellor of L N Mithila university A Moghni were also accused.

Jayaprakash Yadav won the recent parliament elections from Munger and is the minister of state for water resources even as the case drags on in the special vigilance court in Patna.

So what was the BEd scandal? As per the FIRs filed by the Vigilance, the fraud involved senior officials of National Council for Teacher Education NCTE, a union body formed in 1995 to recognise teacher training institutions, several universities and officials and senior bureaucrats in the Bihar state education department.

Against the prescribed norms, the accused conspired to run bogus BEd colleges in different parts of Bihar that sold degrees for a price ranging from Rs 2 to 2.5 lakh.

The fraud began in early 1990s but flourished after 1995 and was busted in 1999. After the formation of the NCTE, starting a new college required prior permission of the Council and existing colleges required to get approvals from the new regulatory council.

Many colleges in Bihar were shown on paper as being in existence for decades, and NCTE permissions were sought. These colleges, most of which did not have even basic infrastructure, obtained false 8216;spot inspection8217; reports by officials of the education department, got all the permissions and recognition from the NCTE and respective universities.

Once this was in place, brokers lured students from all states8212; Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, UP, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh8212;who paid money for a degree that would make them eligible to become teachers in their respective states.

In one case, it is alleged that Yadav approved the permanent recognition to the Muslim Minority Ahmedia BEd College in Katihar, under Bhupendra Narayan Mandal University on June 6, 1997, with retrospective effect from 1992-93. The accused are charged with issuing about 40,000 fake degrees.

Gaya based Magadh University and Dharbhnga based L N Mishra Mithilia University gave recognition to most of these fake colleges. 8216;8216;These colleges existed only on paper. The students did not even need to take the exams in some colleges. Everything was taken care of by the brokers and the records related to the degree were destroyed within a year,8217;8217; says an officer who was in the vigilance department when the fraud was detected.