ESTABLISHMENT DPO ACCUSED OF EMBEZZLEMENT

ESTABLISHMENT DPO ACCUSED OF EMBEZZLEMENT

12-SEP-ENG 5

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

BUXAR------------------------Buxar District Education Department is once again in the headlines. This time the allegations are on the District Program Officer (Establishment) Vishnukant Rai of the district. Azad Giri, a resident of Hata village of Tilak Rai, has sent a letter to the District Magistrate and top officials of the Education Department, making a serious allegation of diversion of government funds of more than one crore eight lakhs. Giri has demanded that a high-level investigation of this entire matter should be done and strict action should be taken against the guilty officer.

Buxar District Education Department is once again in the headlines. This time the allegations are on the District Program Officer (Establishment) Vishnukant Rai of the district. Azad Giri, a resident of Hata village of Tilak Rai, has sent a letter to the District Magistrate and top officials of the Education Department, making a serious allegation of diversion of government funds of more than one crore eight lakhs. Giri has demanded that a high-level investigation of this entire matter should be done and strict action should be taken against the guilty officer. -- Ignoring the orders of the Accountant General and the Education Department

This withdrawal is being considered as an open disregard of the guidelines of the Accountant General Patna and the Education Department. The department had given clear instructions that the amount will not be diverted to any other item and there should be no doubling of expenditure. Despite this, the DPO is accused of keeping the amount in the account and later making payments arbitrarily, which comes under the category of corruption.

This is not the first allegation on Establishment DPO Vishnukant Rai. He has been embroiled in controversies many times before, including favouring the so-called education mafia Ajay Singh, making payments to the firm First Idea associated with him despite the investigation being pending and the salary payment of his teacher wife was released as soon as she was relieved from suspension, while in other similar cases the files remain stuck for months. At the same time, despite the transfer order, the Establishment DPO has been stationed in Buxar for a long time, due to which questions are being raised on the departmental rules. Due to these incidents, he has already been accused of "bias and collusion".

Azad Giri says that the payment was made by dealing with the contractors, which is a direct sharing process. The payment of those with whom the matter could not be resolved has been stopped till date. He said that the irregularities prevalent in the education departmental work in Buxar are not hidden from anyone. Giri has demanded from the District Magistrate that it should be seen in how many cases the amount of 2023-24 was spent in 2024-25 and 2025-26, how much amount is still stuck and to benefit whom this was done.

It is worth mentioning that departmental action has been taken against many district education officials who made payments against the rules in other districts of Bihar. In such a situation, the question arises that despite serious allegations like diversion of more than one crore rupees in Buxar, why no concrete steps have been taken so far.

After the allegations, fingers are being raised on the functioning of the education department in the district. Common people say that if corruption continues at this level in an important department like education, then children and schools will have to bear the direct loss. Let us tell you that Azad Giri has mentioned in his complaint letter that this is clearly misuse of government money and corruption. Strict action should be taken against such an officer so that in future no official of the education department can divert government money for personal benefit.

At present, the matter has reached the District Magistrate and top officials of the Education Department. People in the district are now eager to see whether the DM orders a departmental inquiry against Vishnukant Rai or the matter will again be shelved.