Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Education Minister P.K. Abdu Rabb have been pulled up by the CAG for flouting the norms to aid madrasas that were ineligible for any kind of assistance. The chief minister, according to the report, personally intervened for these madrasas when the centre declined grant for them. The education minister on his part revoked an order, issued in the interests of transparency, to transfer the salaries of madrasa teachers to their bank accounts.
These were revealed in the CAG report on general and social Sector, which was tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday. The audit scrutiny revealed that the children studying in 39 of the 40 madrasas were actually students who attended regular schools and had regular access to modern subjects. Thus, these part-time madrasas were not eligible for central assistance under the Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrasa (SPQEM).
“Though this fact was brought to the notice of Kerala Government in the earlier audit report of March 2012, it had failed to take remedial action,” the report said.
When the centre declined to fund the madrasas on the ground that they were not working as per the guidelines, the chief minister intervened on their behalf with the centre knowing fully well that they were ineligible for support. The CM’s letter concedes that madrasas were functioning only on part time basis, with students attending mainstream education.
Here is how, according to the report, the education minister flouted the instructions aimed at transparency and accountability. The centre had in 2009 asked the states to ensure better transparency and accountability in payment of salaries to madrasa teachers by depositing salaries of teachers in their respective bank accounts. The DPI issued an order on these lines in March 2014. “However, based on the directions of the Education Minister of the State, the DPI revoked (May 2014) his order and released the salaries to madrasa authorities instead of crediting into the bank accounts of the teachers,” the report said.
