With 6.2 lakh fake identities for mid-day meal removed, Andhra saves Rs 105 crore

According to a note by the Primary Education Department to the NITI Aayog, the Andhra Government has incurred a savings of Rs 105 crore in the year 2016-2017. It is said that during this time, 2.15 lakh names were removed from the rolls. 100% Aadhaar authentification was achieved in the last academic year when the anomaly was found. Schools were also caught duplicating student names to gain funds.

In a shocking revelation, more than 6.2 lakh fake identities have been cancelled from schools in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. While this comes as a shock for the sheer fact that corruption has reached this scale in India, on the flip side it shows that government policies on Aadhaar and PAN card are working to eradicate corruption. According to a note by the Primary Education Department to the NITI Aayog, the Andhra Government has incurred a savings of Rs 105 crore in the year 2016-2017. It is said that during this time, 2.15 lakh names were removed from the rolls.

Assistant director Primary Education T Vijaya Kumar, speaking to the media, said, "We started the process of Aadhaar authentication in 2015-16. We got 70 per cent of the work done in the period and in the last academic year, we completed 100 per cent. Impressed with our work, the NITI Aayog asked all other states to follow our model in February this year.”

Officials also point out two different types of fake identities- one that was created out of duplication when students left school without deleting their names and the other one was created manually when the headmasters enrolled names without students. The latter came into light when biometric attendance data was checked. Officials believe that this was done either to prevent schools from being shut down or for misusing the resources sanctioned for the midday meal schemes. Incidentally, as against the 33,93,411 students enrolled in 2016-17, 2,15,000 were considered fake.

Thanks to School Information and Management System (SIMS), coupled with District Information System for Education (U-DISE), the detection of fake profiles for mid-day meals was detected easily. According to official records, the centre has saved Rs 6.75 crore  out of the total allotted budget of Rs 266.27 crore.