BERHAMPUR: Five persons, including a woman teacher and her father, were arrested in Kandhamal district on Monday on charges of forging their caste certificates and benefitting from government programmes.

The accused are Debendra Pradhan, a retired teacher and his daughter Raisa Pradhan, a teacher in Kalinga nodal upper primary school, Kameswara Mallick, 60, and his two brothers Alakash and Ispan of Dakabadu village, said SP (Kandhamal) K V Singh.

They were arrested basing on the FIR lodged by district welfare officer (DWO), Kandhamal, police said. The DWO lodged an FIR after the state level scrutiny committee (SLSC), inquiring into the fake caste certificate issue confirmed the forgery.

While Pradhan and his daughter had got the teacher job by producing fake caste certificates, the other three had availed of government benefits. With this, the number of arrested persons in fake caste certificate cases in the district was gone up to 25 in the last two years, police said.

The Kue Samaj Samanyaya Samiti (KSSS), a tribal outfit, has been demanding action against people getting government benefits by producing the fake tribal certificates since last five years. The tribal outfit was identified around 1,000 such persons. "We have submitted list of persons to the Kandhamal district. Action was taken only on few of them," alleged a leader of the KSSS .

The non-tribals are not only getting government job, but are also enjoying power in the political circles through fake certificates, he said.

