VISAKHAPATNAM:The government on Wednesday slapped notices on four private junior colleges in Visakhapatnam agency area in connection with the submission of bogus list of Scheduled Tribe (ST), Scheduled Class (SC) and Backward Class (BC) students allegedly to swindle government grants.
The show cause notices were served on Mother Junior College, Mother Teresa Junior College, Lakshmi Prasanna Junior College of Paderu and Gnana Sagar Junior College of Hukumpeta in the district, based on the enquiry report filed by district vocational education officer (DVEO) T Nagesh Kumar.
The enquiry report found that the four junior colleges submitted bogus list of students to the Board of Intermediate Examinations and also the government allegedly to swindle government funds meant for scholarship, tuition fee and mess charges for the students belonging to the marginalised sections of the society.
The fraud was exposed, as not even a single student among the 48 registered candidates, appeared for the final examinations at Mother College in Paderu.
On information, HRD minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao directed the DVEO to probe into the incident and submit a report. The enquiry report filed by the DVEO exposed the scholarship fraud.
“We have also served notice to the Board of Intermediate Examination officials working in Visakhapatnam as to how they failed to notice the irregularities. We are issuing a memo to the officials concerned who have certified the colleges and student strengths,” the minister added.
According to sources, the show cause notice was just a formality and the government will order to close down the four colleges after completing the procedure. “We suspect that more private colleges in the state will be involved in the fraud. The regional intermediate officers are supposed to certify the colleges only after conducting the mandatory physical inspection. But, it seems our officers have overlooked the procedure,” said a senior education department official.