Autonomous Dist Council Chandel sets up 50 schools sans Government approval
Chairman justifies, says it will benefit poor students
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 23 2012: The Chandel Autonomous District Council has set up 50 new primary schools without approval of the Government on the ground that these schools are necessary for poor students who cannot afford private schools.

Reliable sources informed The Sangai Express that the Primary Schools set up recently at 50 villages in the interest of poor students, who wish to study but cannot afford private schools, have already started functioning.

Highlighting the necessity of establishing these schools, ADC Chandel submitted a proposal to the Governor.

Though a similar proposal was also given to the State Government, the Government has not given its consent till date.

As establishment of 50 new schools would require recruitment of new teachers as well as construction of new infrastructure which would require an astronomical amount, establishment of the schools requires approval of the Government, said a high-ranking official of the State Government.

A structure passing off as a school in the hill district

Talking about the new schools, Chandel ADC Chairman Chungkhosei Zou said that a large number of children were being denied education as there was no Government school in their villages while their parents could not afford private schools.

After deliberating on the matter threadbare, the ADC resolved to set up the schools in the interest of the poor children.

Conceding that no approval was obtained from the Government in setting up the schools, Chungkhosei said that school buildings were constructed by the villagers or community halls are converted into class rooms.

As for the teachers, additional teachers teaching in schools under the council were re-posted to the new schools.

On the other hand, many discrepancies and anomalies have been detected after signatures of 835 teachers were examined in the forensic science laboratory.

As against the Cabinet decision to recruit 278 teachers for district councils, 835 teachers were recruited fraudulently.

The attendance registers and signatures of these teachers were examined at the forensic science laboratory when the teachers filed a complaint at the Court demanding their emoluments in the form of arrears.

When the attendance registers were checked, many teachers were found appending their signatures on holidays and even on "February 30".The laboratory has already submitted a preliminary report to the Government.

As the number of teachers recruited in 2006 were far greater than the number approved by the Cabinet, 835 teachers were terminated in February 2009.They were given salaries till April 2007 .

The terminated teachers filed a complaint at the Court stating that they attended schools from 2007 to 2009.