Paradip: In a shocking incident, books meant for distribution among students of government schools in this port town were sold off to a scrap dealer after those were allegedly eaten away by white ants. The matter was reported from Sanjay Gandhi School at Nua Bazaar in Paradip port town where the books were sold to a scrap dealer Raghua Sahu for Rs 400. This cluster school in Paradip is included in Mo School Yojana under 5T initiative of the state government. The school has 15 teachers and a peon with 330 students on its rolls in 2021-22 session.
The school has undergone repairing and transformation thrice from 2019 onwards at an expenditure of Rs 1 crore. The books were meant for distribution to students of government schools under Ujjwal and Utthan schemes when schools remained closed during Covid pandemic in 2020-21 educational years. Many students failed to study properly due to closure of the schools. Realising the situation, the state government had decided to supply books to students from Class-II to Class-V under Ujjwal scheme and for students from Class-VI to ClassVIII under Utthan scheme. The state School and Mass Education department had supplied these books to schools for distribution but the authorities chose to keep it with them instead and sold them off after those were allegedly eaten away by the white ants.
Cluster resources centre coordinator (CRCC) Sukant Swain operates from a room in this school. When questioned, the CRCC and school authorities tried to shift the burden and blamed each other for the development. This reporter met the scrap dealer Sahu and tried to figure out the matter when he was coming out of school carrying the books. Sahu confirmed the development stating that all the books weighed 72 kg and he had paid Rs 400 to the school in the presence of four lady teachers and a male teacher. The CRCC said that the teachers have sold these books. Headmistress Sabita Kumari Parida feigned ignorance on the development stating that the books were in possession of CRCC and he might have sold these books.
Block education officer Pabitra Kar said he has no knowledge about the incident as he is in a hospital on a health emergency. DEO Niranjan Behera also feigned ignorance about the incident. A local Arabinda Swain demanded a probe into matter and action against the teachers and education authorities. Rabindra Ojha, vice-president of school committee alleged that the school authorities always sell off the old articles whenever a repairing or renovation work takes place in the school.