Police set up SITs, file FIRs in tablet scheme ‘scam’ in West Bengal

The State government’s Taruner Swapno scheme is aimed to bridge the digital divide among students of West Bengal by providing financial assistance to students to buy smartphones and tablets. Allegations of funds meant for students being diverted to other accounts has surfaced from various districts of the State.

More allegations of fraud relating to the West Bengal government’s ‘tablet scheme’ came to the fore on Thursday with several schools in Kolkata, South 24 Parganas and other districts alleging that money allocated for the students have been diverted to other accounts.

With hundreds of students alleging fraud, the Kolkata Police on Thursday set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the allegations of siphoning of funds meant for the ‘ tablet scheme’. Similar allegations of fraud were made by authorities of at least 35 schools in the adjoining South 24 Parganas districts where funds meant by 400 students were diverted to different accounts.

The Malda district police registered five more FIRs in allegations of tablet fraud and the district police also constituted an SIT to look into allegations of fraud. 181 bank accounts were frozen on Thursday by Malda police. 

 Earlier similar allegations of diversion of funds meant to be transferred to accounts of students have come to fore in Murshidabad, Paschim Bardhaman and Uttar Dinajpur districts of the State. More than a dozen people have been arrested and hundreds of accounts have been seized. 

Senior officials of the West Bengal government held a meeting to look into how the fraud could be executed in a direct benefit scheme. The investigation so far has revealed that there have been instances of targeting the ‘Taruner Swapno’ portal with the involvement of cyber cafes across the scam. In several cases the funds have been transferred to bank accounts outside the State.

The State government’s Taruner Swapno Scheme is aimed to bridge the digital divide among students of West Bengal by providing financial assistance to students to buy smartphones and tablets. Under this scheme a one time grant of Rs 10,000 is transferred into the bank account of students at higher secondary classes. In the financial year 2024-25 the West Bengal government has allocated about Rs 900 crore for the scheme.

As the Opposition parties are targeting the State government for the fraud, West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu expressed hope that all those behind the fraud will be arrested. The Minister said that the fraud is a one time glitch like the leaks in question papers of the State Board exams.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said that there is not a scheme in West Bengal where fraud has been executed by the supporters of the ruling party. The ‘ tablet fraud’ has emerged when the West Bengal government is facing allegations of irregularities in the school and municipal recruitments as well as siphoning of funds for the public distribution system (PDS) . Former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and former Food and Supplies Minister Jyotipriya Mullick are behind the bars for alleged involvement in school recruitment and PDS fraud.

EOM

Published - November 15, 2024 09:28 am IST