Spotlight

New Delhi, 30 April 2007

CRORES OF EDUCATION FUNDS SWINDLED

HYDERABAD, May 1 (INFA): The latest scam in Hyderabad relating to the swindling of education funds amounting to Rs.40 crore is causing great embarrassment to the powers that-be.

The mastermind of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) scam is allegedly 45-year-old Sarasa Devi, a former School teacher, who developed close contacts with the Telugu Desam Party, Congress leaders and bureaucrats.

In collusion with an Assistant Accounts Officer, V. Subramanyam, in the SSA Project Director’s office, she allegedly siphoned off unutilized SSA funds remitted back to the project office from the districts in an organized manner since December 2004.

It is amazing that top bosses in the Education Department remained oblivious to the swindling of crores of rupees under their very nose. On a tip-off from the Central Government, they woke up from their slumber and unearthed the scam.

Sarasa Devi has reportedly flaunted her alleged proximity to a personal security officer to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in a bid to overawe the police officials investigating the scam.  The Opposition parties---the TDP, TRS, CPI-M, and the CPI are out to capitalize on the scam to put the CMO in the dock.  They have made demands varying from a judicial inquiry by a sitting Judge to a CBI probe.

The State Government promptly entrusted the case initially to Central Crime Station and then to the CBI-CID, even while ordering a Departmental inquiry by a senior IAS official.

The Chief Minister has assured stern action against the guilty once the investigation is completed. 

This swindling episode is nothing new. During the TDP regime, two scholarship scams surfaced in 2002 wherein the accused floated bogus colleges and claimed scholarship amounts in the name of fictitious students for several years. They misappropriated Rs.41 crore.---INFA

HIGH SEA FISH DEPLETES: FAO

NEW DELHI, May 1 (INFA): Several species fished on the high seas outside the reach of national jurisdictions are in danger of over-exploitation, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.

Twentyfive per cent of all fish stocks monitored by the agency are either over-exploited, depleted or are recovering from depletion, according to a report. More than half of highly migratory oceanic sharks and two-thirds of high-seas fish stocks, including hakes, Atlantic cod and halibur orange roughly, basking shark and bluefin tuna, are either depleted or at high risk of collapse, the report, State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, said.

While these stocks represent only a small fraction of the world’s fishery resources, they are key indicators of the state of massive piece of the ocean ecosystem, according the FAO’s report. Of particular concern are ‘straddling stocks,” or species which frequently navigate between national maritime boundaries and the high seas.

The report said that the global trade in fish and fishery products, the most traded food in the world, has reached a record high, with an export value of $71.5 billion, up 23 per cent from 2000.----INFA