Latest Bihar lesson: a teachers scam

According to the FIR lodged with the police, the Secretary of the Education Department S K Negi (IAS) along with Vice Chancellor of the Lalit Narayan Mithila University and the Registrar are “primarily responsible.” The Vigilance department, however, has named the princpal of the state government training college in Turki, Ramji Singh, as the “brain” behind the scam.

In 1997, Singh had allegedly recommended that seven minority institutions be granted recognition with retrospective effect from 1993. Vice Chancellor M S Abdul Mogni, without getting the Senate’s approval, granted recognition to these colleges.

Director General of Vigilance D P Ojha said that all these seven institutions were running merely on paper and that Rs 60 crore had been swindled from teachers so far. An estimated 40,000 certificates had been issued, he said, to teachers mainly from Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. These teaches used to pay anything between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh for a fake degree, he said.

The going rate for a 70-per cent aggregate was Rs 2.5 lakh. Incidentally, teachers from outside Bihar were not even supposd to come to Patna — they were sent their certificates through the “contact person.” The alleged racketeers were kind to local candidates — they allegedly got their certificates for just Rs 1.5 lakh each.

Ojha said that of late, the Rajasthan government had written to Bihar “about the abnormal rise in the number of teachers getting their training from Bihar.” But nothing happened.

Later, after taking charge as Governor, Justice B M Lal asked the Vigilance Department to investigate. Although these were minority institutions, records show that only 70 out of the 1800 candidates enrolled last year were Muslim. And out of the 40,000 who got their certificates, only four per cent were Muslim.