FOCAL POINT:
- If one case has come into notice, it clearly indicates that the practice of forging most important document of an employee is being actively done by clerks and employee are offering money for getting undue favours and illegal entries.
- The departmental inquiry will not be a solution, as such practices are not possible until having support from immediate boss.
- An inquiry under District Administrator assisted by a wing of Police Deptt will unearth larger quantum of scams.
THATHRI/JAMMU: The Education Department in Doda district has remained in news in the past too for varied reasons with corruption in offices at top followed by misappropriation of funds, forging records, attachments of teachers in offices and absence of teachers from duties. Though the entire district Doda has many stories to tell about the Education Department but Zonal Education Office (ZEO) Thathri has always played a lead role in such corrupt practices.
I the past too JK Monitor has played its role as a responsible media outlet to expose such practices which has sent shockers across the district A link to news available on internet exposing the corrupt practiced in ZEO office Thathri is given here for those readers who wish to read it again to refresh their memories.
(Exam fees overcharging nexus EXPOSED in Thathri Zone: Dy. CM directs DSE-J for inquiry)
Continuing the past practice, sources told JK Monitor that some clerks in the office of ZEO Thathri have been misusing their official position and pressurizing the teaching community to get their paper work completed.
These clerks further use to extract money as bribe from teachers and those teachers who pay money as bribe are given undue favours by making or skipping entries in the service books and other documents signed.
The need of the hour is the entire records of the ZEO office Thathri should be seized and a in-depth inquiry shall be initiated so the records forged, service books misplaced, entries made and skipped the service books is probed and the real culprit are booked under the rule of law.
Some teachers from the Zone through their Zone leader Naseer Ahmed Butt informed JK Monitor, that in a fresh controversy some serious allegations of corruption and mismanagement have been leveled against a clerk of the said office.
The screen shots forwarded by Naseer Ahmed Butt and now available with JK Monitor established that a clerk has take money from a teacher probably to do him a favour.
According to Naseer, in an Official Whatsapp Attendance Group and Alam Group some teachers have admitted that one senior Assistant namely Chur Chand Sharma has taken rupees 44000 from a teacher namely Romesh Kumar.
It is visible from the amount which is not small, that this money might have been taken to do some favour to the teacher or doing some kind of fraud.
In the group it has been further claimed that out Rs 44000, Rs 12000 were returned back to said teacher to either to silence him or some unknown reasons.
According to Naseer, referring to Whatsapp Group, another Teacher namely Nayeem Sadiq has also admitted that Rs 4000 were taken from him and his another colleague Asif to update their service records.
Many teachers of the zone have also leveled allegations of overwriting, cutting and tempering on their service books against the clerk Chur Chand Sharma.
The service book of the above named teacher Romesh Kumar has been misplaced by the said clerk when he insisted clerk to pay back his remaining balance.
The said teacher went from pillar to post to find his service book but all in vain. The matter was been taken up with the higher authorities for which an Inquiry Committee has been framed but the report is still awaited, informed Naseer.
Teachers of Zone have repeatedly requested the authorities to take charge of Service Record from the said clerk and handover to some another official because the clerk is involved in corrupt practices but the authorities are still supporting him due to the reasons best known to them, said Naseer.
The allegations of the corruption leveled by the teachers against the clerk is an eye opener to the public as well as the teaching fraternity. It gives the foul smell of the scams and corruption in the education department, particularly in ZEO office Thathri. These allegations are of very serious nature and clearly indicates how deep rooted is corruption in this office.
Regrettably from time to time while an elected Govts’ were in place, officials at the helm of affairs saved their subordinates and promote them to continue such practices but now under Governors administration, it can be at-least hoped that corrupt officials who support corrupt n their offices are taken to task and an example is set for others. Unfortunately the victims of this corrupt system are poor students of the government schools.