Balasore, April 20: The district administration today sacked 10 teachers, recruited under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, for allegedly submitting fake educational qualification certificates.

The authorities would register criminal cases against the teachers, who had submitted BEd certificates from universities of other states such as the Bundelkhand University and the West Bengal State University. The district project co-ordinator of the central programme has found the certificates to be fake during scrutiny.

District education officer H.K. Kandi said: "Block-level education officers have been asked to lodge FIRs against these teachers."

Out of the 10 dismissed teachers, eight had submitted BEd certificates from the Bundelkhand University in Jhansi, while the rest had produced fake certificates from the West Bengal State University.

In January, the district authorities had hired 152 teachers for various schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. These teachers are paid consolidated salaries.

Besides, officials suspect that the number could go up, as the certificates of all the teachers have been sent to their respective institutes for verification. "We expect the number of such fraud cases to go up. Selection of teachers was made on the basis of merit. It seems that many candidates forged their degrees," said a programme officer.

"In view of the shortage of BEd institutes in the state, unscrupulous candidates are procuring certificates from touts," said a police official.

Forging of documents have become a major source of headache for the Balasore district administration. Last week, the authorities had detected 63 fake health certificates from 64 applicants, who were seeking monthly pensions under the disability scheme. The district collector has directed the officials concerned to lodge FIRs against them. During preliminary investigations, it turned out that the health certificates had been manipulated. The police are trying to identify the people dealing with forged certificates.