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Chandigarh: Conman dupes govt school cleaners, 10 principals suspended
The development comes a day after police registered a case against Rajiv Kumar, alias Raju, for duping cleaning staff at these schools after posing as a contractor
In the first such action, the UT education department suspended principals of 10 government schools on Thursday after a conman managed to enter and operate inside the institutions under their supervision.
The development comes a day after police registered a case against Rajiv Kumar, alias Raju, for duping cleaning staff at these schools after posing as a contractor.
The principals/heads of the 10 schools have been placed under immediate suspension for dereliction of duty and chargesheets will also be issued to them shortly by the department. While the department officials didn’t share the names of the schools, people familiar with the matter said they were located in the city’s periphery, with three from Dhanas, as per the complaint submitted to the police.
One of the school principals was on deputation from Punjab and has now been transferred back. The appointing authority of the state will be conveyed a detailed report on the dereliction of duty so that disciplinary proceedings can be taken.
After getting chargesheeted, which can take around two weeks, the principals will be given the opportunity to explain their side of things while the department can take further action against them.
Meanwhile, police registered a cheating case against the accused Rajiv, but are yet to arrest him. As per officials, Sunita of Dhanas complained that on January 4 this year, the accused met her and told that he had a tender for recruitment of 100 cleaners on DC rate in three schools.
She told her neighbours and around 12 persons met with the accused at the Government Model High School, Dhanas, to get jobs. Sunita said she was asked to pay ₹35,000 for a cleaning job and alleged that the accused and his aunt Chanda Thakur have taken money from around 40 unemployed women, which they haven’t returned till date.
UT education department officials had said that Rajiv claimed to be a contractor from Delhi who had got the contract from the ministry of health under the Swachh Bharat Mission. In some schools he claimed to be from MC.
Taking cognisance of the matter, UT director school education Harsuhinderpal Singh Brar has formed a committee to probe how the incident happened. “A committee which includes deputy directors 1 and 2 and the district education officer has been constituted to ascertain as to how and why the dereliction of duty happened. The committee is also mandated to suggest changes in the standard operating procedures so that in the future such things do not happen,” he said. The committee will have seven days to present the procedures for the future.
