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Govt officials fake income certificates
Scholarships for Wards
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Rajouri, September 26
Can the monthly family income of a government officer, whose wife is also a government employee, be less than Rs 9,000.There are such cases in the district where government officials, who have more than one government employee in their families, in connivance with revenue officials have reportedly managed to get income certificates showing the family income much less than the actual income.

Parents (government employees) of some students belonging to the Scheduled Tribes category, seeking admissions to various graduate and postgraduate courses in government and private colleges in or outside the state, have reportedly submitted income certificates showing less family income to enable their wards get scholarships.

The scholarships (in the form of payment of fees for the course and mess charges in case of hostel users), which is given by the state’s Social Welfare Department, is awarded to students of various categories, including the Scheduled Tribes (ST), Scheduled Castes (SC), resident of backward areas (RBA), resident of actual line of control (ALC) and other categories.

Whereas the maximum family income limit for a candidate belonging to the ST category is Rs 1.08 lakh per annum, for the SC category it is Rs one lakh and for the majority of other categories it is Rs 44,500 per annum. The income certificate is issued by the tehsildar of the areas after a field report from the patwari and verification by the naib tehsildar.

In one such case, a senior health officer, whose wife is also a government employee, in connivance with the local revenue officials reportedly managed a income certificate showing monthly income of Rs 2,500 for getting the scholarship meant for ST students for his child.

In another case, a principal of Government Higher Secondary School, whose wife is also a government employee, managed a certificate showing income below Rs 9,000 to get his child the scholarship meant for ST students.

A senior intelligence officer confirmed that they had received public complaints against 12 government officials, who had reportedly produced wrong income certificates to the office of the District Social Welfare Officer concerned for availing scholarships under various categories for their children and seeking admissions to various professional and degree colleges and universities. These government officials got these income certificates by allegedly bribing the revenue officials. “We are probing the matter,” the intelligence officer said.

A source in the Social Welfare Department confirmed that the department had received such fake income certificates. “How can a gazetted government official, whose wife is also a government employee, can have income less than Rs 9,000? They, by producing such certificates, are eating the share of poor and deserving needy students.”