Fadnavis stays NCP minister-led minority development department’s decision

Mumbai: After issuing a series of probe orders and stay orders to decisions by departments under Shiv Sena ministers, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has now intervened in the working of the minority development department led by the Nationalist Congress Party’s Dattatray Bharne, after Shiv Sena minister Sanjay Rathod complained about alleged irregularities in granting minority status to an educational institute in the Yavatmal district.

Apart from ordering a stay on the decision to grant minority status to the institute, the Fadnavis government also issued an order making it mandatory for educational institutes to apply online for a digitally signed minority status certificate.

Since July 2017, educational institutes belonging to religious or linguistic minorities could register on the Aaple Sarkar portal and get an online certificate once the government grants them minority status. However, this wasn’t mandatory.

According to a government order issued on February 20, the state government decided to make the online process mandatory after receiving complaints regarding irregularities in the offline process. Institutes that were being granted minority status via the offline process were getting government benefits, but the government did not have any proper data about them, the order added.

“Accordingly, all educational institutes that received minority status before July 2017 must apply online to get the certificate,” the order said. It will also be mandatory for these institutes to get a digitally signed certificate of minority status within six months, the order added.

The government order was issued after Shiv Sena’s Rathod told Fadnavis that an educational institute in Darwha, Yavatmal, received a Hindi linguistic minority status even though most of its management committee members are Marathi-speaking.

Fadnavis took cognizance of the complaint and asked the state administration to investigate the matter. It was then revealed that the minority development department had transferred a designated government officer in charge of granting the minority status certificates and appointed another officer in their place. After taking charge, the new officer granted minority status to the educational institute in Darwha, officials said.

The state government also learnt that another officer who had started investigating complaints about some schools in Solapur district receiving a Kannada linguistic minority status by allegedly submitting fake documents had been transferred, according to officials. Bharne did not respond to the calls and text messages seeking his reaction to the government order.

Pyare Khan, the chairman of the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission, welcomed the state government’s order, saying it would bring transparency to the process and help the authorities verify all details. “We have received complaints that many institutes show their relatives and friends as teachers on their rolls and pocket the money from the salary which the government pays, manipulate the number of students and also the appointment of teachers. Education officers are involved in such scams,” he said.

Khan, who had written to Fadnavis about such irregularities in minority educational institutes, added that he would request Fadnavis to make it mandatory to upload teachers’ educational degrees to curb malpractices in the appointment process.