KL Report

SRINAGAR

Large-scale embezzlement of funds provided by Central Government as financial assistance to Education Department in Jammu and Kashmir has come to fore.

The official data made available in response to an RTI application filed by an activist Rasik Rasool reveal that Government Middle school Ahgam Rajwar in Kupwara District received financial assistance under NPEGEL (National Programme for Education of Girls at elementary level) and Mid Day Meal (MDM) schemes.

The data reveals that the School Authorities had purchased wool and other hosiery items for children from “Danish Iqbal Wool and Hosiery Store’’ of Handwara but as per records, no such items were purchased from the said shopkeeper. Surprisingly, all the bills and vouchers vide number 329 and 337 provided by school authorities are self-made and fake.

The owner of the said Wool and Hosiery Store, Muhammad Iqbal told CNS that all the bills and vouchers are fake as he never sold wool and hosiery items to the School authorities amounting thousands of rupees. He however said that some teachers from the said school managed to take some blank bills from him. “I did not know that they will use these blank bills to embezzle central funds,” he said.

Bills worth thousands of rupees for purchasing wool under NPEGEL scheme from one, “Sheikh Beauty Corner” Handwara also proved to be fake as the owner told CNS that he never sold wool to school authorities amounting to Rs 18,000.

Similarly, the school authorities has shown purchasing of wool for Rs 19,442 from Basit Farooq Wool and Hosiery shop near police station Handwara now a hardware and sanitation shop in 2012, but the proprietor of the shop while describing it a fraud, said that he never supplied wool to the School under National Programme for Education of Girls at elementary level scheme.

What School authorities have done under NPEGEL, have repeated the same process under Mid Day Meal Scheme. The bills and vouchers shown by school management belong to those shopkeepers who refuse to acknowledge them and term all the bills self-made and fake.

The data obtained under RTI has revealed that all the bills relating to the purchasing of wool and eatable items have prepared by a single person.

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