The school education department has stated in a report that funds to buy tabs or smartphones could not be transferred to 484 students at government and aided schools in Calcutta because of incorrect data provided by the institutions.

The office of the district inspector of schools has contacted the school heads so the data could be corrected and the funds under the Taruner Swapna scheme transferred to the students in Classes XI and XII.

The failure to transfer funds has come to light at a time when Bengal is rocked with complaints of widespread defalcation of money allocated for the scheme.

The office of the district inspector of schools in Calcutta has shared the incomplete data with the school heads.

“In the cases concerning the 484 students, there was no misappropriation of funds,” said an official in the district inspector’s office, referring to the reports of alleged defalcation.

“The money could not be transferred to the bank accounts of the 484 students because the schools entered incorrect data in the portal of the school education department. We have asked the schools to feed the correct data so the funds can be disbursed without any further delay.”

The scheme, launched by chief minister Mamata Banerjee during the Covid pandemic, gives ₹10,000 to all Class XI and XII students at government and government-aided schools to buy a smartphone or a tablet for digital learning.

An official in the school education department said the school heads upload details of the bank account of each student, along with the IFSC code, on the department’s portal to facilitate the transfer of money.

“It has emerged that in some cases incorrect account numbers were provided. In some other cases, the IFSC codes were wrong. We are astonished that so many schools have made such mistakes. Why were the heads of the institutions so careless?” the official said.

The school heads give an undertaking that the details entered into the system are correct.

Swapan Mandal, the general secretary of the Bengal Teachers’ and Employees’ Association, said: “The state government should probe what led to so many cases of failed transactions. The students are suffering because of this.”

The East Midnapore district administration had last week lodged a police complaint against the headmasters of four schools after it emerged that the students’ list had been manipulated and the money transferred to the accounts of unauthorised persons.

An organisation of headmasters has said in a letter to the commissioner of school education that many schools don’t have data entry operators and the task is entrusted to “untrained clerks”.