Maharashtra : Quota admission scam to be investigated

Mumbai: The government is beginning an investigation into all quota admissions in the last 8 years. This is being done to trace fake admissions in the SC/ST category of students who are studying on government expenditure in approximately state run medical institutions of Maharashtra.

In recent certificate scams unearthed the government has expelled 17 students from Mumbai’s Grant Medical College and JJ Hospital for having secured admissions on the basis of fake certification. They has sought admission in the quota reserved for ST/SC category. The criminal act of these students will either lead to them facing criminal charges including the possibility of being arrested. They are being probed on the basis of a complaint filed.

Minister for Medical Education and Water Resources, Girish Mahajan 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.”

Sanjay Vairal, Head , ST/SC organization expressing joy felt fraudulent students were finally being booked for criminal acts and though the seats may fall vacant, it would become a lesson of sorts against future malpractices .

The largest and the longest running tribal certificate scam was discovered across Maharashtra in 1976. A special investigating team was constituted on July 1 by the government based on dna reports to discover the entire tribal certificate scam in the Aurangabad division

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.

Based on the dna reports, a special investigating team was constituted by the government on July 1 to investigate the tribal certificate scam in the entire Aurangabad division.

Dr Umakant Dangat, Divisional Commissioner, Revenue (Aurangabad division) is currently overseeing the investigation.

Three IAS and one IPS officer, has been recruited to launch an investigation into the entire division (includes 10 districts) regarded as the centre of the scam, with Nanded district heading it. The team is supposed to submit its report within six months.

The Modi government has also directed central and state governments to probe all caste certification issued to authorities.

According to Dr Rajendra Bharud, SDM, Kinwat (Nanded) , “There is hardly any vacancy in the tribal quota seats in state medical colleges. But there are hardly any doctors 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.”