UP education most corrupt: Lok Ayukta

N K Mehrotra maintained that education sector would turn out to be the biggest scam collectively if probed threadbare

The education sector is perhaps riddled with most instances of public corruption and irregularities in Uttar Pradesh, the state Lok Ayukta, N K Mehrotra, said.

He said the sector would turn out to be the biggest scam collectively if probed.

The irregularities relate to the alleged encroachment on the forest/government/gram sabha land and siphoning off local area development (LAD) funds by politicians.

“The modus operandi is to buy a bigha and encroach on the adjoining forest or gram sabha land and put up a boundary wall for the purported school. Later, the concerned legislator would divert his LAD fund to this ‘educational institution’ and get a cut of 40 odd per cent,” Mehrotra told Business Standard.

Now, this school, with bare minimum infrastructure, could also be used for other ends, like allowing mass copying during exams, he added. “Besides, other politicians would be coaxed to allot their LAD to such schools for a cut.”

He said politicians such as Badshah Singh and Avadh Pal Singh had encroached upon the gram sabha land in this fashion. “The unscrupulous politicians use this route to convert black money into white also by showing it as donation.”

Mehrotra hit national headlines recently when he indicted 199 persons in the alleged Rs 1,400 crore scam relating to the construction of lavish parks and memorials in Lucknow and Noida during the previous Mayawati regime.

Her name, however, did not figure in the report, since she was “beyond the scope of the probe.”

Nevertheless, her two powerful cabinet ministers Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha have been named. The report, given to the state, claims 35 per cent of the total budget sanctioned for these constructions was misappropriated.

He said if the income tax department, registrar of companies and anti-money laundering sleuths were prompt, most cases of financial misappropriation could be checked.

“During our investigations, we have found firms facilitating incorporation of new companies have witnessed meteoric growth in a couple of years, specially in the National Capital Region, since these unscrupulous firms excel in bypassing laws to the advantage of their clients,” Mehtrotra said.

“We have also detected while the revenue of companies owned by the kin of top politicians are falling, the profits are increasing,” he added.