Action sought against siphoning of SC,ST students’ funds

A division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam before whom the plea came up for admission on Monday issued notice to Principal Secretary, Department of Adi Dravidar and Welfare and posted the case for further hearing to December 10.

K Karthikeyan of Mayiladuthurai contended in his public interest litigation (PIL) that following repeated complaints of misappropriation of funds meant for SC and ST students, the government appointed an auditing team to scrutinise the amount spent.

Accordingly, the Chief Internal Auditor and Chief Auditor of Statutory Body in its report submitted two types of misappropriation viz the absolute misappropriation of public fund and misappropriation unable to be calculated absolutely, but approximately calculated. Based on this, under the first type more than 35 sub-headings have been dealt with and the aggregate misappropriation has been put at Rs 17.36 crore.

Further, the plea on citing the second head, said the officials in the guise of fees for SC/ST students under the management quota had suppressed the material fact that the respective students were admitted under government quota wherein the government fees is lower than the fees under the management quota and swindled Rs 4.34 crore.

Similarly, if a student joined a lapsed seat in government quota, the amount proportionate to government fees should be levied. But the authorities have collected the enhanced amount under the management quota in the name of SC/ST students and thereby misappropriated to the tune of Rs 1.78 crore, the plea said.

However, noting that despite the Director, Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) referring the issue to Adi Dravidar Welfare Department on September 27, 2018 no tangible action has been taken against the culprits. Also submitting that the representation to the Chief Secretary and other relevant authorities had failed to evoke any response, the plea sought the court to direct the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police and others to take appropriate action against the wrong doers and recover the misappropriated public money.