*338 schools to be taken up under NREGA, SSA
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 21: Embezzlement of crores of rupees in construction of schools has surfaced in Udhampur district with District Development Commissioner issuing directions for registration of FIR against 57 Village Education Committees (VECs) comprising of Sarpanchs and officers of the School Education Department.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that for construction of three additional class rooms along with toilet and head-teacher room in each Middle School, funds to the tune of Rs 9.84 lakh for each unit were kept at the disposal of Village Education Committees (VECs) through Chief Education Officer of the Udhampur from 2007-08 onwards.
Similarly, for construction of one additional class room for each Primary School along with toilet and head-teacher room, an amount of Rs 6.80 lakh for each unit was kept at the disposal of VECs during this period.
However, in the month of July this year, the District Development Commissioner Udhampur, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary came to know that fate of around 445 school buildings was hanging in balance because of varied reasons, which include cost escalation, high carriage cost, land disputes etc since 2007-08.
Accordingly, he got a detailed exercise carried out by involving teams of different departments and finally it came to the fore that in 57 Village Education Committees, funds to the tune of Rs 4.15 crore were embezzled instead of completing the constructions timely. “This was done intentionally to seek additional funds from the Government for carrying out the remaining works”, sources said.
It has also surfaced that these 57 Village Education Committees even engaged the contractors despite the fact that as per the standard guidelines of the School Education Department the work was to be carried out by VECs only, sources revealed.
Today, District Development Commissioner issued directions to the Police for registration of FIR against these Village Education Committees for wasteful expenditure, misappropriation of funds and willful delay in construction of additional class rooms, which otherwise would have provided adequate space to the students in the Middle and Primary Schools.
“Besides Sarpanchs and prominent citizens, who were members of these Village Education Committees, 57 Headmasters would also face legal action as they were Secretaries of these Committees and were supposed to ensure utilization of funds for the construction of additional class rooms”, sources said, adding it has also been decided that properties of members of these 57 Village Education Committees would also be seized to realize embezzled funds from them.
As far as hanging fate of 445 school buildings is concerned, sources said that Deputy Commissioner has issued directions for taking up 338 schools under MGNREGA and SSA schemes for completion through Rural Development Department and Engineering Wing of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. He has also issued directions for release of Rs 2 to Rs 5 lakh to each school to meet the gap of funds.
They disclosed that Deputy Commissioner has resolved issues pertaining to more than 80 buildings and Tehsildars have been tasked with resolution of land disputes in 38 cases and work will commence within 10 days. In order to ensure timely completion of the school buildings, the Deputy Commissioner has constituted teams of BDOs, Tehsildars and ZEOs for daily monitoring of progress.
The DDC has also directed withdrawal of funds from Village Education Committees, recovery of interest accrued, criminal proceedings against defaulters and construction of schools within next 2-3 months.
“The embezzlement of funds by 57 Village Education Committees should be an eye-opener for the School Education Department, which should immediately direct all the DDCs to carry out inspections through joint teams in their respective districts as the possibility of embezzlement of funds in other parts of the State cannot be ruled out”, sources said.
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