Raining bribes! Vigilance raids unearth massive irregularities in education department

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A major irregularity was found in the vigilance raid conducted at the education department offices. The raids were conducted in 41 district education offices, seven regional deputy director offices and seven assistant director offices under the name of Operation 'Black Board'.

It was found that money was received through Google Pay to grant service benefits to teachers and non-teachers in the aided sector. Unnecessary delays were created, demanding bribes. It was found that appointments were approved in the aided sector without following the differently-abled reservation and that forged documents were prepared with the connivance of officials of the district education office to maintain the posts of teachers in aided schools.

11 teachers were appointed in a school in Thiruvananthapuram without following the reservation for differently-abled people. Rs 77,500 was received from the Google Pay account of two clerks in the Kuttanad Education Office, a senior clerk in the section related to the approval of aided legislation.

Rs 1.40 lakh was received in the Google Pay of an official in the Alappuzha Education Office. The official could not provide an explanation for this. An official in the Malappuram Regional Deputy Director's Office received Rs 2,000 from an aided school teacher on Google Pay. This was a bribe to expedite a transfer application. There is also a suspicious transaction of Rs 20,500.

Unaccounted Rs 4,900 was seized from officials in the Malappuram District Education Office.

In order to maintain the teaching post at an aided school in Taliparamba, fake admission documents of three children, not students from the school, were created. One of these students is studying at Kendriya Vidhyalaya. In order to maintain the teaching post at an aided school in Thalassery, fake documents were created stating that 28 children were studying in a class. Vigilance found that there were only nine children in the class.

Retired officials will work as service consultants in the name of resolving deficiencies in the files. These people who act as intermediaries take huge bribes from teachers. Vigilance received information that money was distributed to the officials in the education offices.

"It is a serious issue that officials in the education offices are complicit in irregularities by taking bribes. There will be further inspections. The bank accounts of the suspects and their family members will also be checked," said Manoj Abraham, Vigilance chief.