RTI Happenings: 2,500 teachers in 25cr medical bill scam

[akhilesh yadav]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/15049120.cms

THE TIMES OF INDIA (mumbai)

20 july 2012

2,500 teachers in 25cr medical bill scam

MUMBAI: Around 2,500 teachers of the Latur zilla parishad are allegedly involved in a Rs 25-crore medical bill reimbursement scam, a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed.

Primary schoolteacher and activist Bhanudas Biradar, who had filed the RTI plea, submitted copies of the relevant documents to former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, his legislator son Amit Deshmukh, home minister R R Patil and minister of state for home Satej Patil, who is also the guardian minister of Latur, for action.

"I called on them and handed over all the documents for the last five years. However, no action has been taken so far against the erring education officials," Biradar told TOI on Thursday.

Three months ago, when Biradar submitted a medical bill for reimbursement, he was allegedly asked to pay a bribe for settlement of the amount. When he refused to do so, his bill was rejected on the grounds that he was not entitled to the reimbursement.

Subsequently, Biradar filed an application under the RTI Act to find out why his claim was rejected as well as details of teachers in the Latur zilla parishad, whose bills were reimbursed by the competent authority. He procured copies of medical bills submitted by 2,500 teachers to the zilla parishad's education officer. "When I called on the civil surgeon for verification of the bills, I was told by health officials that most of the bills submitted by the teachers were fake.

Even the seal of the district health officer was a duplicate one," Biradar said.Biradar also found out that the stores, from where the medicines were supposedly bought, did not exist.

"The Food and Drug Administration checked the bills. I was informed that the addresses of the medical stores were fake ones," he said.

A senior education department official said the errant teachers devised a mechanism to work around the limitations of the system. As the zilla parishad's education officer was empowered to approve medical bills up to Rs 40,000 at a time, the bills submitted by the teachers for reimbursement ranged between Rs 38,000 and Rs 39,000. "Under the rules, the education officer has powers upto Rs 40,000. If the amount is more than Rs 40,000, then the bill has to be submitted to the Pune head quarters of the state education department,'' he said.

A departmental probe has been initiated into the scam. "We feel the entire amount should be recovered from the teachers and stern disciplinary action taken against them," the official said.Latur, incidentally, is the hometown of Vilasrao Deshmukh, was so far know for hijacking the results of the SSC examination, but now the image of the city has been tarnished following alleged involvement of a large number of teachers in the multi-crore scam.

[karira]

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