Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 24: Astoni-shing it may sound but it is a fact that officers of two important wings of the Education Department have been found completely ignorant about the enquiry ordered into the misappropriation of public money in the construction of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) building in Nyoma area of Leh district. Most shocking aspect is that the enquiry was ordered about a month back and had to be completed by none else than these officers within a period of 15 days.
The misappropriation / mbezzlement in the construction of KGBV building was detected during the preliminary enquiry conducted by Sub-Divisional Magistrate Nyoma on the directions of the Deputy Commissioner Leh, Simrandeep Singh. The work on KGBV was executed departmentally by the Directorate of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) through the Executive Engineer, North SSA Division Kashmir.
Though the construction was completed in the year 2009 yet handing over-taking over of the building never took place during the past four years as the then Zonal Education Officer (ZEO) didn’t find the building complete in all respects, which was not accepted by the Executive Engineer, North SSA Division Kashmir as a result of which building constructed at a cost of Rs 30 lakh remained un-used.
As the Sub-Divisional Magistrate’s report indicated that building has developed numerous cracks and some of its portion does not have doors and electric fitting, the Deputy Commissioner sought a report from the Public Works Department (PWD) Sub-Division Nyoma regarding the current safety status of the building. The Executive Engineer PWD Nyoma, in his report to the Deputy Commissioner, mentioned that building of KGBV was unsafe for use.
Taking serious note of this, the Deputy Commissioner forwarded the case to the Chief Secretary and the Commissioner/Secretary School Education Department last month for necessary action against all those behind blatant misuse of official position and embezzlement of money.
In response to the case forwarded by the DC Leh, Deputy Secretary to Government, Education Department vide Order No.Edu/NC/SE/334-II/2013 dated July 29, 2013 asked the Director School Education, Kashmir and the State Project Director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Srinagar to conduct enquiry into the misappropriation of public money by officials of Directorate of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
Enclosed with copy of the complaint received from the District Development Commissioner, Leh, the order interalia said, “the contents of the complaint are self explanatory. As such you are requested to conduct enquiry by constituting an enquiry team which shall conduct in-depth enquiry within 15 days and favour the report with your comments to the Administrative Department”.
However, Director School Education, Kashmir, Mir Tariq Ali, when contacted, expressed ignorance about such order issued by the Administrative Department. “I have not seen any such order”, said Mr Ali. Similarly, an officer of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan said, “I will have to check the record”. He, however, promptly added, “if there is any such order we will constitute a team within next some days for detailed enquiry”. This was the response from the SSA officer despite the fact that enquiry had to be conducted within 15 days beyond July 29, 2013.
“It is a matter of serious concern that those officers, who had to conduct the enquiry into the misappropriation of funds, are in dark about the order issued by the Administrative Department”, sources regretted, adding “this also indicates how much serious are the officers of the Education Department headed by Deputy Chief Minister towards tightening noose around those who were instrumental in rendering Rs 30 lakh expenditure unfruitful besides depriving the students of the remote area of Nyoma of the benefit of the KGBV scheme”.
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