Govt to check all quota admissions in last few years; guilty students will face criminal charges
The government is in the process of initiating a probe into all quota admissions in the last seven-eight years to trace all fake SC/ST students studying at government expenses in 17 state-run medical colleges across Maharashtra.
The government has recently expelled 17 medical-dental students including nine from Mumbai-based Grant Medical College and JJ Hospital after their certificates to secure admissions under the quota reserved for scheduled castes and tribes (SC/ST) were found to be fake.
These students will also face criminal charges and may be arrested. The probe against them were initiated after a specific complaint.
Girish Mahajan, minister for medical education and water resources, said, “There could be more such students who had secured admission fraudulently on quota seats. A probe into all quota admissions in last 7-8 years would be initiated now.”
The move has been welcomed by Dalit and tribal activists. “These fraudsters must be dealt with strictly. They have snatched the opportunities meant for poor tribals and Dalits. While we know that seats vacated by such fake caste students will go waste, this will set a precedent and others would refrain from attempting this route to bag seats,” said Sanjay Vairal, who heads an organisation for SC/ST students.
In March and April, dna had published a series of reports on the largest and longest running tribal certificates scam which has been flourishing across Maharashrtra (possibly in India) since 1976. The government's own reports estimate that there could be 10 lakh tribals in Maharashtra now. Over one lakh of them are expected to have bagged government jobs and admissions on quota seats in premier medical and engineering colleges.
After the dna reports, a special investigating team was constituted by the government on July1 to investigate the tribal certificate scam in the entire Aurangabad division. The SIT headed by divisional commissioner of revenue (Aurangabad division) Dr Umakant Dangat is currently probing the scam.
The team, with three IAS and one IPS officers, has been tasked to launch investigation into the entire division (includes 10 districts) which is regarded as the centre of the scam with Nanded district being the main point. The team is supposed to submit its report within six months.
Modi government has also directed central government offices and even all other states to probe all caste certificates.
Dr Rajendra Bharud, IAS, who is posted as SDM, Kinwat (Nanded) and has opened the lid of this scam in February this year, said, “There is hardly any vacancy in the tribal quota seats in state medical colleges. But there are hardly any doctor serving in the tribal areas. Had they been real tribals, at least 50% of them would have been practising in their native villages. Had that been the case, tribal people in Maharashtra would not have been suffering from serious health and malnutrition issues now.”
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