India, July 13 -- Months after the school education department found itself in the dock in the Rs.400-crore Shalarth ID scam, under which over 4,000 bogus teachers are estimated to have drawn salaries for nearly six years, another alleged irregularity has surfaced: that of UDISE+ numbers.

A UDISE+ number is a unique 11-digit identification number assigned to every recognised school in India by the state ministry of education for its national database. However, in March and April this year, when municipal corporations across Maharashtra released lists of unauthorised schools operating in their areas, and said they would cancel their UDISE+ numbers, the inevitable question asked was: how did unauthorised schools get the number in the first...