LUCKNOW: The probe by UP Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) into the scholarship scam in Etawah has revealed that out of 118 schools under the scanner, 87 were non-existent on ground and were there only on paper while 31 had less students but had shown a higher strength to get bigger amount in scholarship fund from government.The non-existent schools had used names like ‘Sant Gadge’, ‘Mahatma Gandhi Memorial School’ to appear authentic and avoid suspicion.The government had given approval for registering FIRs against 95 schools, but no discrepancies were found in the functioning of eight schools by EOW in probe.EOW director general Rajendra Pal Singh said, “Massive funds had been embezzled as 70% of the schools in Etawah were non-existent, while over 20 such schools were detected in Meerut district . More schools are under scanner.” The probe in Etawah is being conducted by the Kanpur unit of EOW while the Meerut office is probing the scam in Meerut. A senior EOW official in Kanpur said that over Rs 1crore had been embezzled in a year. “The siphoning of scholarship funds began in 2008 and continued till 2009. Mostly junior and primary schools were involved in the fraud,” he added.“Each student used to get Rs 300-400 as scholarship money. The total loss over two years could be over Rs 2 crore. We have booked the social welfare officer, backward class welfare officer, minority welfare officer, basic shiksha adhikari , assistant basic shiksha adhikari, and three other officials, besides the principal and manager of each school,” the officer said.

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