A shocking trend has been uncovered regarding the employment of fraudulent biometric attendance logs to illicitly withdraw salaries in state-funded madrasas across Uttar Pradesh, reported Aaj Tak. The media house acquired a video showing that absent teachers were being marked as present through plastic cards. It is charged that this fraudulent activity continues because of insufficient departmental supervision and lack of an online facial recognition system integrated with attendance machines.
The footage explicitly illustrated how attendance fraud is transpiring at madrasas through these cards. In light of this disclosure, government officials have announced that an investigation will take place. According to reports, attendance of around 20 teachers is tracked through biometric means (using thumb impressions) at Madarsa Islamia School located in Mailaraiganj, Barabanki.
Nevertheless, this system also does not have administrative supervision and is not linked to an online platform either. It was revealed how multiple staff members were consistently utilising the attendance cards of teachers to log thumb impressions, maintaining bogus attendance records.
Shamshud Hoola Khan, despite staying in Britain for 10 years, likewise continued to receive a salary and allowances from the Madrasa, including a payout from a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) and subsequently a pension. This occurred despite the Madrasa’s official stance of not providing a VRS, a discrepancy that was brought to light during an investigation by the ATS.
On the other hand, the daughter of a Madrasa administrator, successfully secured a teaching role at the institution in Kushinagar. She too continued to receive a salary and allowances for two months by submitting fake attendance records while living in Dubai. Similarly, the thumbprint of the son of Babar Qureshi, who is the administrator at Abra-e-Rahat Madrasa in Jaunpur’s Majhgaon, was employed to record fraudulent attendance for 4 teachers.
Afterwards, the Director of Minority Affairs initiated an inquiry into the matter which is underway. According to the state’s Joint Director, biometric attendance is mandatory in every Madrasa. The Minority Officer at the district level is responsible for compiling the attendance sheets following which salaries are distributed.
The Allahabad High Court issued an order requiring the implementation of online attendance systems in all madrasas in relation to biometric attendance. A committee was formed to oversee the execution of online authentication in these institutions. However, in spite of these orders, attendance is only being recorded in a designated box as a mere formality.
Given that the system relies on biometric attendance, these people were asked to provide their fingerprints. Thereafter, the attendance information is extracted, printed on a plain sheet and submitted to the government to account for the number of available teachers.
