Irregularities in sanctioning grant-in-aid being probed: Govt

An enquiry is being conducted into alleged irregularities in sanctioning of grant-in-aid to two institutes, even as preventive measures has been initiated by UGC to check such incidents, the government today told the Rajya Sabha.
"As per the information received from UGC, it has made certain payments to two institutes that appear to be irregular," Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor said in a written reply to a question on whether UGC has issued grant-in-aid to these institutes on the basis on fake documents even without any application from them.
The institutes in question are Patel Memorial National College, Patiala and Shri Baldev PG College, Varanasi.

The minister said the responsibility for these lapses can be fixed only after an enquiry committee submits its report.
Currently the UGC-constituted committee headed by retired secretary S Satyam is looking into the matter, the findings of which are awaited, he said.
Tharoor also said that UGC has taken certain preventive measures such as issuing sanction letters in triplicate along with grant-in-aid bill to the bank.
One copy of the sanctioned letter is retained by the bank for its record while the second copy is forwarded to the recipient institutions along with the covering letter of the concerned bank.