Post 'Shalarth Scam', Maharashtra Goes Digital with the School Staff Information of Over 5 Lakh Personnel

After discovering irregularities in the Shalarth payroll system, Maharashtra Primary Education Department has, as a transparency initiative, made the details of more than five lakh teaching and non-teaching staff from government and aided schools available on the official Shalarth System website.

Officials added that for the first time, the general public has been given the right to access the records of school staff including teachers of private, aided schools and local body institutions throughout the state. Details shared are the teacher's name, school and management category, date of joining, retirement date, and salary (last drawn).

According to the department, the database covers over 2.93 lakh employees from private-aided schools and around two lakh teachers working in local body schools. The records have been organised board-wise for eight divisional boards — Mumbai, Nashik, Pune, Kolhapur, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Latur, Nagpur and Amravati. Each set of records has been uploaded in searchable PDF format containing thousands of pages.

The step follows revelations of irregularities in the Shalarth system that first surfaced in Nagpur in 2024. The payroll platform, used by the state education department to manage salaries of school employees, was allegedly misused by some officials to appoint ineligible teachers using forged documents. In some cases, Shalarth IDs were reportedly created for non-existent employees, enabling fraudulent salary withdrawals.

To verify records, Sachindra Pratap Singh, the state’s Education Commissioner, had directed schools in August 2025 to resubmit recruitment documents and Shalarth IDs of all staff members. Schools were required to upload appointment letters, joining reports, approval orders and related documents depending on the year of recruitment.

Officials said that over 99 per cent of schools had completed the resubmission process by early March 2026. The department has released that information to the public now. Mahesh Palkar, Director of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, stated that the decision was taken as per the requirements of the RTI Act to promote transparency after the Shalarth scandal.

Educationist Mahendra Ganpule lauded the move and said that if the records were made open to the public, it would lessen the load on schools in answering RTI requests and at the same time, it would be a check on any further irregularities.