SHIMLA: With the Himachal Pradesh government getting ready to hand over the investigation into the multi-crore scholarship scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), involvement of an education department employee along with some private institutions in the Rs 215-crore scam is being alleged.According to highly placed sources in the government, it has been found that an education department employee posted in Kullu had deposited Rs 13 lakh meant for scholarship into his personal account. They added that the said employee was usurping the scholarship amount meant for eligible students for the last five years and some officials of the department were busy protecting him. An FIR has been lodged against the employee for financial irregularity.With chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and state education minister Suresh Bhardwaj taking a tough stand on the issue, preparations are being made to charge sheet the employee. Also a letter has been dispatched from the state secretariat to all concerned seeking details of scholarship amount disbursed by them.According to sources in the education department, record of Bilaspur and Kullu districts was being checked and it has come to light that in Ghumarwin block one person was filling fake forms for scholarship while employees of a private educational institute were going to houses to fill the forms. Sources added that in Bilaspur district alone scholarship funds to the tune of Rs 4 crore did not match with the records.It is being alleged that mostly private educational institutes are involved in the entire scam while some institutes from Panchkula and Chandigarh alone have usurped an amount of Rs 10 crore by preparing fake accounts, sources added.The Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government on August 21 had taken the decision to hand over the investigation into the scam to the CBI. This decision was taken after many irregularities came to light during a meeting held to review the find distribution during the previous Congress regime.It was found that some institutions unexpectedly had large number of students enrolled and preliminary inquiry conducted revealed that different institutions were involved in the scam. As large number of institutions were located outside the state so state government took the decision to conduct detailed probe to bring out the truth.

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