Patna: The Bihar government has begun the process of recovering more than Rs 1,400 crore from around 3,000 government school teachers whose academic and identity documents were found to be fake over the past decade, officials said. The move marks one of the state’s largest crackdowns on fraudulent public sector appointments in recent years.
According to the education department, the teachers in question allegedly used forged B.Ed, BA and BSc degrees, along with fake residence certificates, caste documents and Aadhaar cards, to secure government jobs. Authorities said the recovery process will include both salaries paid and interest, signalling a hardening stance on financial accountability.
About 12,000 teachers have been identified as suspicious and are currently under verification. These teachers are not only from Bihar but also from neighbouring states such as Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand, as well as Delhi and Haryana, highlighting the cross-state nature of the alleged fraud.
Education minister Sunil Kumar said the verification drive followed a large-scale review of appointments made at the panchayat level across Bihar’s 38 districts, where around 3.68 lakh contract-based teachers were recruited. A report sent to the headquarters noted that the state has about 5.8 lakh teachers in total. He said strict action would be taken against anyone found to have used fake documents, underscoring the government’s intent to restore credibility to the education system.
