With a major scam of black marketing of government supplied free books unearthed, the Education department here seized government bookstores in all the fifteen education zones of the district, while record of previous 3 years related to distribution of books has also been taken into custody and raids in different private schools of the district continued on Thursday also.
Chief Education Officer Rajouri Chowdhary Lal Hussain said, “A high profile inquiry has been started into the matter to establish the loopholes which led to such a black-marketing nexus into existence.” He further informed that as per standard procedure, Zonal Education Officers collect the books from Jammu and Kashmir Board offices and distribute the same to schools.
“Black-marketing has either taken place from Board of School Education or from the education department,” CEO said, while addressing a press conference. He also said that if black-marketing has taken place from department side, then it is either from ZEO offices or from schools and only proper investigations can reveal the truth.
The CEO added, “The role of some private schools is also dubious in this matter as their students were in possession of books, which are meant for distribution in government schools only. Stern action against all the accused will be taken and the district administration is monitoring the matter closely.”
Officer also shared the list of private schools from where these books have been seized during various raids. The schools include 22 of Rajouri education zone and 16 from Manjakote zone.
Meanwhile another officer of education department informed that government bookstores in all the fifteen education zones of the district have been seized by teams of education department. “Besides bookstores, last three years record of book distribution from these government bookstores, including distribution registers, have also been seized,” said officer.
It is pertinent to mention here that three days ago, the Education department received an information that students studying in some private schools of Rajouri’s Thanamandi zone were possessing government supplied books after which raids were conducted in these schools. Books were seized and a major black-marketing of government books was unearthed while a private bookseller in Saaj village of Thanamandi was also found selling these books and simultaneous raids were conducted across the district. Students in 75 out of 80 raided schools were found having government supplied books. A case has also been registered by police in Thanamandi police station.