SC and ST students in the State are paying bribe to teachers to get their pre-Matric scholarships. This came to light after the National Human Rights Commission issued notices to the Sambalpur Superintendent of Police while acting on a petition filed by rights campaigner Subhash Mohapatra. One Haresh Jaipura, a Class-IX student of the Katarimal Panchayat High School though was allocated with Rs6,200 on August 16 last year as pre-Matric scholarship by the State Government, but his Sanskrit teacher Gayadhar Pradhan forced him to pay bribe to take the scholarship amount.
On refusal by Haresh, the teacher subjected him to torture and insult. According to the complainant, though the concerned teacher was arrested on September 4 last year, the victim has not been paid any financial assistance as per the provisions of the SC/ST (PA) Act, 1989 and Rules there under. Pursuant to the directions of the commission, a report on October 29, 2014 was received by the commission from the Sambalpur SP. In the report, the concerned authority while not admitting the fact alleged by the complainant disclosed that every student of the school i.e. Katarimal Panchayat High School who stays in the hostel used to receive Rs6200 from Government and they are required to pay Rs300 and 15 kg rice towards their monthly food bill and boarding expenses as well.
Haresh used to stay in the hostel during his continuation in Class VIII and was required to pay as usual. But the scholarship money had not been received by the concerned student in time. Subsequently, he was not staying in the hostel for three months in Class IX and during the same period, the scholarship for the previous year disbursed. So the teachers asked him to make payment for the previous period and the student also assured to make the payment but thereafter the student did not pay the amount. So the In-charge Headmaster of the School Dillip Kumar Paik and Sanskrit Teacher Gayadhar Behera, PET Kailash Chandra Naik compelled Haresh to bring Rs2000 in presence of his classmates during school hours. In its latest order the NHRC has directed the Sambalpur SP to submit a report showing the outcome of the Govindpur police station case within six weeks.