Birgunj:Thirty-six community schools in Parsa district have been accused of misappropriating funds released by the District Education Office (DEO) for infrastructure development.

According to the DEO, a majority of the schools that received the funds had not added even a brick to their buildings. DEO records show that some schools had taken money four years ago.

District Education Officer Kedar Tiwari said his office will take action against the schools misusing the funds.

“Circulars sent to these schools to complete the work were not heeded. We will ask the schools to refund the money.”

Tiwari said inefficient inspection of schools by technical officers had allowed the schools to commit the irregularities. Rambachhan Chaurasiya, principal of a community school in Gadiyani, said the plan to build a new block for the

school had been foiled due to a dispute in the school management committee.

Shree Laxmi Sah Jyoti Secondary School in Gadi received funds from the DEO on two occasions. With the money, the school has readied only the foundation.

Gopal Rai, chairman of the school management committee, accused the previous committee of misusing the funds adding that it had been financially difficult to complete the construction. He, however, did not explain as to where the money that he received from the DEO was invested.

Nabin Singh, an engineer at the DEO, claimed that principals and school management committees take commission from the fund meant for school development, thus compromising with the quality of undertakings.

source:Yadav, Bhusan(2011),"Public schools misusing dev funds", The Kathmandu Post, 11 July 2011