M A I N   N E W S

HRD panel finds anomalies in supply of Punjab school books
Ruchika M Khanna
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 13
The four-member fact-finding committee of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has found various anomalies in the supply of books and purchase of science kits in government schools of Punjab. This committee has also found irregularity in the constitution of the committee that went ahead and purchased these items under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA).

The committee today examined records of the SSA and the RMSA at the Mohali office of Director-General Secondary Education (DGSE) to assess if the three-member purchase and selection committee constituted by Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka violated the financial manual of SSA and the RMSA, while making purchases of library books and science kits.

The members examined the financial powers of different officials under the two Central government-run programmes - SSA and the RMSA. The SSA and the RMSA financial manual states that the purchase and selection committee can be constituted either by the state SSA head (in this case the DGSE) or the state Education Minister. However, the committee could not have made any purchases without seeking approval of the state SSA head.

Sources in the department said the purchase and selection committee had gone beyond its brief and purchased the books, though their job was restricted only to assess and evaluate the quality of books and science kits. Interestingly, in the case of the science kits, the purchase and selection committee went ahead and purchased the kits for students of classes VI- XII, though the funds under the RMSA are meant only to purchase the science equipment for students of classes IX and X. And this year, so far, no funds have been released to purchase the science kits. This means that science kits have been purchased for 759 schools without any funds being available for the purchase.

The government has not paid any amount to the supplier though an order of Rs 7.59 crore was placed with him. Science practical notebooks of government schools were also submitted to the fact-finding committee so that they could evaluate the material that was needed in the science kits and what was actually bought.

The fact-finding committee comprising Ranjana Arora, associate professor, secondary school department, NCERT; Arun Kumar, under secretary, finance, HRD Ministry; Gopalan, chief consultant, procurement TSG- SSA; and Subir Shukla, expert on children’s literature, examined two files relating to the purchase of books and the science kits.

The committee also examined the library books purchased from private publisher as well as the books supplied by the Languages Department, Punjab, for any alleged vulgar content. The director, Languages department, Balbir Kaur,was also summoned and questioned by the committee.

Since the committee members were not well versed with Punjabi (the language used in government files), the DGSE office staff translated the files into English for the committee.

The additional state project director, SSA, Parampal Kaur Sidhu, who is also daughter-in-law of the Education Minister was not asked to assist in the inquiry. However, her staff was asked to submit some files and papers. Tomorrow, the fact-finding committee will visit some government schools where the library books have been supplied.

Lapses by purchase panel

• The committee had gone beyond its brief and purchased the books, though its job was restricted only to assess and evaluate the quality of books and science kits
• The committee purchased the kits for students of Classes VI-XII, though the funds are meant for purchase of science equipment for Classes IX and X. Moreover, no funds have been released to purchase the science kits so far this year
• This means science kits have been purchased for 759 schools without any funds being available for the purchase