SBI starts process to recover Rs 31 crore from student accounts

The management of the State Bank of India, Sector 8, has begun the process of recovering the credited amount of Rs 31.95 crore from lakhs of account holder students, who were eligible for scholarship under various schemes from the Haryana Secondary Education Department in the 2016-17 financial year.

Haryana secondary education department released scholarships to eligible students quarterly and annually studying in classes VIII to XII. These scholarships include merit scholarships to SC girls, pre-matric scholarships, Education Encouragement of Excellence, National Merit Scholarship Scheme and National Talent Search Scholarship Scheme.

The amount, credited in the accounts of students, was not cleared by the Haryana Secondary Education Department, which filed an FIR against the SBI management alleging embezzlement of Rs 154.27 crore on September 25.

The FIR against the SBI management was filed when the bank did not respond to half-a-dozen requests of the Haryana Secondary Education Department to provide files related to the credited amount.

Sources said, “After the registration of FIR, SBI officers started reviewing all the credited amounts in different phases and they are ready to provide all the details to the state education department. They have now sought assistance from the education department to initiate a process to recover the mistakenly credited amount from several accounts opened in the names of students.”

SBI Regional Manager R K Chokkar said, “First of all, there is no embezzlement and we cleared this point with senior education department officers. It is a matter of reconciliation. We have all the records of credited amounts in the accounts and making effort to get back the credited scholarships in lakhs of accounts despite the fact that the credited amount was not cleared by the state education department. We are cooperating with the education department officers and chalking out a plan with them to recover the credited amount.” Rajeev Rattan, Director of the department, said, “Initially, SBI was reluctant to reply to our queries. Now, they are in our contact. We are jointly reviewing all the accounts in which scholarships were credited but not cleared by our department.”

A case was registered at Sector 5 Police Station. Inspector Arvind Kumar, SHO of PS 5, said, “We are investigating the case. We have sought certain records from State Bank of India, Sector 8. The records will be analysed.”
News Source (Indian Express)