[India] 192 identity records verified in UP following ‘fake teacher’ controversy

The records of 192 teachers in Uttar Pradesh are being verified by the state Education Department after officials discovered duplicates of PAN numbers and bank accounts used for drawing salaries, The Hindu reports.

The checks are being made as police continue investigating the “Anamika Shukla” controversy; the alleged recruitment of ‘fake teachers’ using the same identity across multiple districts.

Vijay Kiran Anand - Director General of School Education-U.P. - has written to the district Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) to verify the records in 192 cases where identical PAN cards and bank details have been recorded for different teachers.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr Anand said, “When we checked the database of all the teachers whose salaries are being drawn, then in some instances, we found duplicates of the PAN. Now we are verifying whether the data feeding was done correctly or there is actually a problem.”

He further clarified that it was not a case of a single PAN number being used across the 192 cases; there were multiple cases of duplicates with different details.

Further action would be taken following the submission of the BSA’s reports, Mr Anand added.

Ballia in east U.P. is one of the districts where details are being collected. Officials reportedly said that eleven cases of duplicate details have been found there. The district BSA asked the Block Education Officers (BEO) to direct the 11 teachers to appear in person on 29 June with documents to prove their educational qualifications, training, caste, residential address proof, Aadhaar card, PAN card and additional information such as work start dates and details of the school employing them.

Narendra Kumar - BEO of Belhari in Ballia - said the probe would clarify matters but suggested that some of the queried entries could be a result of teachers transferring from one district to another, leading to documents from both locations being found at the State’s HR portal. This, however, is only one possibility Mr Kumar said, “The other possibility could be fraud,” he said.

Source: The Hindu reports.

The records of 192 teachers in Uttar Pradesh are being verified by the state Education Department after officials discovered duplicates of PAN numbers and bank accounts used for drawing salaries, The Hindu reports.

The checks are being made as police continue investigating the “Anamika Shukla” controversy; the alleged recruitment of ‘fake teachers’ using the same identity across multiple districts.

Vijay Kiran Anand - Director General of School Education-U.P. - has written to the district Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) to verify the records in 192 cases where identical PAN cards and bank details have been recorded for different teachers.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr Anand said, “When we checked the database of all the teachers whose salaries are being drawn, then in some instances, we found duplicates of the PAN. Now we are verifying whether the data feeding was done correctly or there is actually a problem.”

He further clarified that it was not a case of a single PAN number being used across the 192 cases; there were multiple cases of duplicates with different details.

Further action would be taken following the submission of the BSA’s reports, Mr Anand added.

Ballia in east U.P. is one of the districts where details are being collected. Officials reportedly said that eleven cases of duplicate details have been found there. The district BSA asked the Block Education Officers (BEO) to direct the 11 teachers to appear in person on 29 June with documents to prove their educational qualifications, training, caste, residential address proof, Aadhaar card, PAN card and additional information such as work start dates and details of the school employing them.

Narendra Kumar - BEO of Belhari in Ballia - said the probe would clarify matters but suggested that some of the queried entries could be a result of teachers transferring from one district to another, leading to documents from both locations being found at the State’s HR portal. This, however, is only one possibility Mr Kumar said, “The other possibility could be fraud,” he said.

Source: The Hindu reports.