Maharashtra: Bogus schools to face wrath of state govt

Cabinet Minister for School Education Deepak Kesarkar has taken a strong stand against fake schools, saying those that submitted forged or fake documents for NOCs or approvals from the government will not be spared, and a criminal offence charge will be filed against them. Kesarkar has already constituted a committee to address unauthorised schools across the state.

Addressing the media on Monday, Kesarkar said, "There are two types of bogus schools - one that delayed taking approval and NOC from the state government, or do not have approval as yet; and the second type are those which have submitted fake and forged documents to acquire NOC and approval. We will help those who are delayed, or have issues with their documents, or are yet to take approval. Those that have irregularities will be regularized. However, those that have committed criminal offences by submitting fake and forged documents will not be spared."

Cabinet Minister Deepak Kesarkar said schools that have irregularities will be regularized. Representation pic

There are a total of 621 schools and madrasas across Maharashtra which are unauthorised and do not have the requisite permissions from the government, according to the information given to the Maharashtra legislative assembly in March by Kesarkar. Apart from that, more than 650 CBSE-affiliated schools across the state are already under investigation. As per the rule, school administrators must obtain a NOC from the state education department for affiliation to private boards.

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The state school education department initiated investigation after learning that several schools in Pune were using the CBSE curriculum though they had not been granted NOCs. According to sources, a racketeer sold fake NOCs for Rs 12 lakh each to schools that did not have the required infrastructure and facilities mandated by CBSE. In Mumbai too the deputy director of education has started the process of scrutinising NOCs, which mid-day reported on January 18.

"A report of the same will be submitted to the state education department following which action will be taken. As the first step, we will take possession of the NOC, verify and cross-examine whether it has been issued by the Maharashtra government or is fake and fabricated," said Sandeep Sangave, deputy director of school education.