DI says teacher 'misused' Rs. 4 lakh

Statesman News Service

MALDA, April 24: The teacher in charge of Gangadevi High School in Chanchal II block allegedly misappropriated nearly Rs 4 lakh allotted from Sarba Siskhsha Mission in last financial year, the district education officials said today. The misappropriation of fund has come to light yesterday after inspection conducted by the education officials headed by the district inspector of school, Mr Chinmay Sarkar. Yesterday, Mr Sarkar inspected the school and checked the accounts of the schools but did not locate the whereabouts of Rs 4 lakh out of Rs 5.55 lakh which was allotted to the school for the construction of three classrooms. Mr Sarkar said: “Both the secretary and teacher-in-charge of the school failed to answer satisfactorily about utilisation of funds and they failed to show a single brick for the construction of the classrooms yesterday.” But it was detected that the teacher-in-charge, Sridam Chakdar, had withdrawn Rs 4 lakh from October to February 2008, he said. “No work has been done there and there was no entry in the cash book. Even in the last two years' accounts there were no records of grant in aid received from the government,” Mr Sarkar said. Though Mr Chakdar said they paid in advance for supplies and the contractor for the construction of the three classrooms, he could not show any papers to justify his argument. The district inspector of the school instructed the secretary of the school Mr. M A Mian to give written statements who confessed that he did not know about the funds allotted from SSM and where was the money. The DI has also collected some written statements from the secretary and other people from the schools on the charges of misappropriation of funds against the teacher-in-charge so he can submit a report to the Malda district magistrate and other concerned officials soon.