Government had provided money to various primary schools of Hazaribagh district to purchase benches and desks under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scheme some months ago. last week a teacher of NPS Dudhpaniya lodged an FIR at Barhi Police Station of Hazaribagh district against a supplier lalkishore Das who had not supplied the furniture though payment has already been made to him.
After this FIR about a dozen complaints of similar nature started coming from different corners of the district. According to information supplier lalkishore Das who is a resident of village Oriya of Hazaribagh Sadar block is said to be absconding after collecting more than Rs. 20 lakhs from different schools.
As per our sources of education department the schools have to purchase a pair of bench-desk at the fixed rate of Rs. 4000. The name of supplier Das was recommended to the schools by some higher authorities of the department and with this recommendation Das visited the schools and collected cheques for supply of furniture giving some cash as commission to the members of the managing committee.
When furniture was not supplied the teachers started searching him and found him absconding. During this search it was found that Das has purchased some furniture from Ms Neha Steel situated in Kumhartoli Muhalla of Hazaribagh and has supplied it to some schools. The owner of Neha Steel, Sonu Kumar, said that Das had purchased furniture of about Rs. 4 lakhs from his shop and had supplied it to some schools. He has not yet paid his amount too, though he has already received the payment from those schools. Sonu said that he is also going to lodge a case against lalkishore Das because his payment has not been made by the purchaser till date.