Major Rs 11-Crore Mid-Day Meal Scheme Fraud Exposed in Uttar Pradesh: Five Arrested Including Teacher and Village Head

Balrampur:

A significant fraud amounting to approximately Rs 11 crore within the mid-day meal scheme has been uncovered in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur district. This discovery has resulted in police filing an FIR against 45 individuals and arresting five people, including a village head and an assistant teacher, authorities confirmed on Thursday.

The district Basic Siksha Adhikari filed a formal complaint at the city police station on Thursday, alleging a massive scam exceeding Rs 11 crore through manipulation of government records related to the mid-day meal program, according to Superintendent of Police (SP) Vikas Kumar.

The complaint details how the fraud was executed by tampering with Excel spreadsheets generated on the department's IVRS portal, which maintains records of student enrollment numbers in schools.

These enrollment figures serve as the basis for government fund allocation using conversion cost calculations. Following approval by the district magistrate, the sanctioned Excel document should be uploaded to the designated portal for direct fund transfer to school accounts.

However, investigators discovered that instead of uploading the original documents, the accused allegedly inflated fund amounts for certain selected schools while reducing allocations for others. This manipulation was designed to keep the total allocation amount unchanged, thereby evading detection during routine audits.

Police investigations revealed that the extra funds transferred to the favored schools were subsequently withdrawn and distributed among the headmasters, village heads, and school management committee presidents involved in the scheme.

The arrested individuals include Firoz Ahmad, Ashok Kumar (headmaster), Naseem Ahmad (village head), Mohammad Ahmedul Qadri (committee president), and Malik Munawwar (assistant teacher). The Superintendent of Police indicated that the investigation remains ongoing, with additional arrests anticipated in the near future.