TEACHER DRAWING SALARY FROM MULTIPLE SCHOOLS ARRESTED

Process of verifying documents of all 5,000 teachers of KGBVs begins

LUCKNOW/AGRA: The woman teacher of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), who allegedly drew salary from multiple schools in different districts, was arrested in Kasganj on Saturday, the police and the state basic education department said. Now, the process of verifying documents of all 5,000 teachers of KGBVs has started to check more such cases, the department said.

LUCKNOW/AGRA/MEERUT: The woman teacher of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), who allegedly drew salary from multiple schools in different districts, was arrested in Kasganj on Saturday, the police and the state basic education department said. Now, the process of verifying documents of all 5,000 teachers of KGBVs has started to check more such cases, the department said.

“The teacher working under the name of Anamika Shukla was arrested from the BSA (basic shiksha adhikari) office in Kasganj on Saturday. A case has been registered at the Soron police station in Kasganj district,” said Kasganj additional superintendent of police Pavitra Mohan Tripathi. The arrest was made when she reached the BSA office to tender her resignation.

“Detailed interrogation took place and the teacher initially said her name was Anamika Shukla but later she revealed her name as Priya Singh. These facts are being investigated to ascertain her real identity,” said Tripathi. She had claimed to be a resident of Kayamganj in Farrukhabad district.

“Her documents bear this name (Anamika Shukla) and she was appointed in 2018,” Tripathi added. Confirming the news of the arrest, basic education minister Satish Chand Dwivedi on Saturday said, “Kasganj police arrested her when she went to the education department office. The matter is being investigated.”

The arrested woman told the press that she was working at the Faridpur Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya for the last 18 months. She claimed a person helped her get the job in exchange for money.

KGBVs are residential upper primary schools (class 6 to 8) for girls in educationally backward blocks (EBBs) with rural female literacy below the national average. The department also lodged FIR against suspected proxy teachers of KGBV in Baghpat and Aligarh who were allegedly getting their salary on the basis of Anamika’s papers. “FIR was lodged by the department in Baghpat and Aligarh on the directive of the basic education minister,” said Vijay Kiran Anand, director general for school education.

Meanwhile, in a letter to additional chief secretary, basic education, Renuka Kumar, the minister said it had come to his knowledge that several full-time and part time teachers were working at multiple schools.

He said, “Now documents submitted by all the 5,000 teachers at the time of selection will be verified to ensure that no such foul play takes place in future.”

“Our findings suggest a sum of ₹2.31 lakh was paid to Anamika in Ambedkar Nagar, ₹1.16 lakh in Saharanpur, ₹93,530 in Aligarh and ₹68,200 in Amethi. This matter came to light after the Yogi government decided to upload details of teachers’ attendance and salary on the web portal to minimise foul practices which had been going on for several decades,” the minister said.

Dwivedi said the database of teachers on the Manav Sampada portal required personal records of teachers. Once the records were uploaded, it was found that an Anamika Shukla, with the same personal details, had been listed at several other schools.

Meanwhile, Alok Singh, the circle officer of Baraut in Baghpat, forwarded his recommendation to the SP on Saturday to lodge a case of fraud against Anamika Shukla. The circle officer said she joined KGBV in Baraut as a teacher in December 2019 but she drew no salary there.

Basic shiksha adhikari, Amethi, Vinod Mishra said, “Anamika had sent her resignation via WhatsApp to the district coordinator of KGBV, Amethi on Saturday. She joined on November 28, 2019 and continued to work till February 2020. We stopped paying her from March.”

ONCE THE RECORDS WERE UPLOADED, IT WAS FOUND THAT ANAMIKA SHUKLA, WITH THE SAME PERSONAL DETAILS, HAD BEEN LISTED AT SEVERAL OTHER SCHOOLS