KOLKATA: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Kolkata police to look into allegations of scammers siphoning off funds for students to purchase tablets has said that over 1,900 beneficiaries have been cheated.
The team went to Bikash Bhavan on Friday and questioned all the officials who are associated with the purchase of the tablets.
The investigation has revealed that there have been instances of the ‘Taruner Swapno’ portal being targeted with the involvement of cyber cafes. In several cases, the funds have been transferred to bank accounts outside the state.
As part of the ‘Taruner Swapno’ project, a scheme was launched by the Mamata Banerjee government to disburse a sum of Rs 10,000 to the bank accounts of students in Class 11 and 12 to buy smartphones and tablets. Banerjee had announced the first tablet scheme on December 3, 2020, initially naming it Tablet Scheme 2021.
The state government’s 'Taruner Swapno' scheme is aimed to bridge the digital divide among students of West Bengal by providing financial assistance to students to buy smartphones and tablets.
A one-time grant of Rs 10,000 is transferred into the bank account of students at higher secondary classes as part of the scheme. In the financial year 2024-25, the West Bengal government has allocated about Rs 900 crore for the scheme.
West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu expressed hope that all those behind the fraud will be arrested. The National Informatics Centre has been asked to examine the situation and they have proposed an SoP to identify the hackers. “No guilty person will be spared," he said on Tuesday.
The police said funds have been found to be siphoned to bank accounts in other states like Bihar, Rajasthan and Jharkhand, and sometimes to other districts in West Bengal different from the domicile of the beneficiaries.