The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : ‘Irregularities’ mar Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

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Tuesday, Sep 02, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

‘Irregularities’ mar Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

Staff Reporter

Many stayed on deputation for more than five years at a stretch, says in-charge additional coordinator

‘There was zero monitoring of residential bridge camps and alternate schools’
Y Hrishikesh takes charge as the project officer of SSA

Kakinada: The Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) was replete with several ‘self-styled’ posts and unauthorised deputations.

Scores of teachers allegedly stayed at home or carried on their part-time jobs while showing themselves to be busy with SSA duties.

A good number of school buildings and classrooms remained incomplete as the funds were either diverted for other purposes or had no account at all.

These are only a few instances of the massive irregularities which caused immense damage to the SSA, said project’s in-charge additional coordinator G.C. Kishore Kumar.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Mr. Kumar said there were many staff members, who stayed on deputation for more than five years at a stretch.

Some of them were suspended and the others were repatriated to the parent departments.

The salary of a mandal-level data entry operators was pegged at Rs 2,000 per month as against the permitted amount of Rs 5,500.

The loss per person on this count which is glaring but not acted upon by the top officials, was up to Rs 2 lakh a year. Accounts in the name of SSA were opened in more than one bank in violation of norms.

Action has been initiated in this case to have different heads of accounts in a single bank.

Mr. Kumar said Collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi issued orders to continue or appoint only secondary grade teachers as the mandal resource persons (MRP). Accordingly, MRP, who does not fit in the eligibility criteria, would be repatriated to their original posts.

There was zero monitoring of the residential bridge camps and alternate schools. An umpteen number of training sessions were held under the SSA but only few utilisation certificates were submitted.

Inquiry

The public money was looted in various other forms under the guise of SSA. The ongoing inquiry by departmental officers and statutory auditing, which was not done for at least a couple of years, would bring more such stark facts to light.

The situation was such that it was just impossible to even know how many persons worked for SSA and in what capacities due to the absence of periodic inspections and fear of punitive action.

Later, Mr. Y. Hrishikesh took charge as the project officer of SSA.

He hoped that he would have the cooperation of all district officers concerned in improving manner in which the project is implemented.

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