ROURKELA: The headmaster of a government school in Sundargarh district was placed under suspension on Wednesday for allegedly selling textbooks to a scrap dealer. The accused was identified as Chhanda Charan Singh, the headmaster of Sargigarh Upper Primary School in Koida block. He was suspended by Koida block education officer (BEO) Md S Rehman after it came to light that the headmaster illegally sold a large quantity of textbooks meant for students to a scrap vendor. The books were meant to be distributed free to students of different classes.
On receiving complaint about the matter, the BEO conducted an inquiry and found the allegation against Singh to be true. The incident came to light on April 18 when an auto-rickshaw arrived at the school. When the three-wheeler was about to leave, it broke down and was stranded on the road.
Some locals came forward to help and to their shock, found around 3,000 textbooks inside the vehicle. On enquiry, they came to know that the headmaster had sold the books to a scrap dealer. District education officer AK Pradhan said basing on the investigation of Koida BEO, a report was submitted to the State government on Thursday. The books have been recovered from the scrap vendor.
Pradhan further informed that in several cases, it is not possible for schools to distribute all the books received from the government to students. Being government property, the undistributed books remain in the custody of respective school authorities. But selling undistributed books without informing the officials concerned is illegal, he added.