CHENNAI: Nearly 51,000 SC/ST students in Tamil Nadu lost out on their promised amount (Rs 15.45 crore) under the Centre’s educational incentive scheme as the State government had allegedly uploaded incorrect bank account and IFSC code details.
Documents sourced by Express revealed that the Centre recently recalled the unutilised funds from Canara Bank through which the money was disbursed.
To reduce the dropout rate among SC/ST girls, the Centre in 2008-09 launched the National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education to promote enrolment of girls in the age group of 14-18. The scheme proposed to deposit Rs 3,000 in bank accounts of eligible girl students, which they could withdraw after they turn 18 and clear their Class X board exam.
Accordingly, Rs 128 crore was sanctioned for 11.72 lakh students across the country, of which Rs 36.38 crore was earmarked for 87,166 students in Tamil Nadu.
Express on February 28 reported that an RTI response to Madurai-based Dalit activist S Karuppaiah revealed that beneficiaries did not receive this amount even after eight years.
When the National Commission for Scheduled Castes sought an explanation, State school education secretary T Udhayachandran in his reply on April 13, 2017 admitted that disbursement of the incentive was pending, citing technical error in uploading data between Canara bank and Public Financial Management System. “Officials from both the levels were unable to show success or rejected data of beneficiaries as there was no specific beneficiary tracking system,” he added.
Rejecting this, Canara Bank in its response on May 3 stated that the amount deposited under the scheme was disbursed as and when they received data from the HRD ministry and they kept the State government informed.
However, there were discrepancies over number of beneficiaries and funds released. While the State government in its letter to NCSC claimed that Rs 36.38 crore was parked as fixed deposit in Canara Bank for 87,166 students, Canara Bank stated that Rs 13.63 crore was disbursed to 35,645 students.
Explaining this, deputy general manager of Canara Bank Dharampal Naik said that they could not deposit the amount in several bank accounts as incorrect IFSC codes or 13-digit bank accounts were made available to them. “The Centre in December 2016 instructed us to return unutilised funds under this scheme. We did so on January 6, 2017.”
According to Karrupiah, “the State government should take responsibility for uploading incorrect data as students in 2008-09 would have had very little idea about IFSC codes back then.”
Despite repeated attempts, Udhaychandran was unavailable for comment. Also, there was no clarity whether the government cross-checked the eligibility factor as nearly 30% beneficiaries from Chandigarh under this scheme were rejected as PFMS found out they didn’t clear their Class X exams.