Biswabrata Goswami
KRISHNAGAR, 30 NOV: It seems that 16 months are not enough time to take action against a government school headmaster who has been already accused of misappropriating funds by the team of government officials under the instruction of Nadia district magistrate.
The accused headmaster Manaranjan Biswas of Krishnagar Collegiate School is still enjoying his post in the school even though repeated protests against him by the school teachers and a section of guardians took place.
The district administrative officials, who conducted an enquiry against him, have even kept their mouths closed when asked, but sources within the government officials said that state education department has kept the enquiry report in idle because of his ‘strong influence’ with a section of state school education department officials.
This correspondent tried several times to contact the Commissioner of the state education directorate, but to no avail.
The enquiry report (Memo no: 549/SSA dated 14.07.2020) has revealed that the allegation of misappropriation of funds against the headmaster Manaranjan Biswas was largely correct.
The Statesman had published a report on 9 February, 2020 where it said “The headmaster of Krishnagar Collegiate School, a reputed government high school in Krishnagar has been allegedly accused of misappropriating funds and indulging in corruption in many activities since his joining.”
Many guardians and school teachers have alleged that Manaranjan Biswas, headmaster of the school did not follow the due procedure of spending government funds. A sum of Rs 11.87 lakhs was sanctioned by the Directorate of School Education (DSE) vide its memo number 117-SC (S) Dt 25.01.2019 in favour of school for buying water purifier, materials and laboratory equipments for eight departments such as Math, Physics, Chemistry, Visual Arts etc, but a gross anomalies has been detected in connection with spending funds for purchasing materials.
Mr Biswas even did not serve any notice inviting quotations from the supplying agencies. He did not form any purchasing committee or committee headed by department lab head teachers. He also ignored the requisitions from the concerned teachers of the statistics department.
Many teachers of the school alleged that Mr Biswas somehow collected some quotations from two or three agencies of his choice and purchased materials and equipment alone himself for the reason best known to him.
Following the instruction of Nadia district magistrate (Memo No: 85/1(16)/SSM dated 20.01.2020), a team of government officials conducted a probe into this matter. The team also conducted a probe on various complaints along with CMRO grievance (Chief Minister’s grievance cell) related to Krishnagar Collegiate School.
The investigating team prepared an enquiry report on the whole matter, but no steps against the headmaster have been taken yet. The enquiry report has not been given to the complainants either. Finally, an RTI application was filed and SPIO and District Project Officer sent the enquiry report to the applicants.
Most of the working teachers in the school are very much disappointed about the inaction and they expressed their anxious saying that if the government does not take action against such a corrupt headmaster then how we will teach students fearlessly.
Tags: #KrishnagarCollegiateSchool #Headmaster #MisappopriationOfFunds #DSE
