Bajura, September 3

Siradi-based Pancha Laxmi Lower Secondary School in Bajura allegedly  misused the scholarship fund for the fiscal 2072/73.

The school reportedly has yet to distribute scholarships to physically disabled and Dalit students, among others. Sources at District Education Office, Bajura said Rs 77,183 was transferred to the school’s account in December 21, 2015.

“We have yet to get the scholarship amount,” said Sitalpura Chandara, a sixth grader Dalit student at the school.

Dalit students — Sitalpura, Panash and Ganga Chandara — studying in the school said they did not get the amount to buy educational materials. “The school occasionally reimburses us, sometimes not,” they said. The students said they had not received any instalment of the scholarship amount last year.

Meanwhile, Mangal Bishwokarma, head teacher at the school, said the school had spent the said amount in construction following a verbal agreement between the school management and the guardians. The DEO had offered Rs 1,350,000 for the construction of a new two-room school building. However, Bishwokarma said the amount was insufficient . “Therefore, the scholarship amount was spent with consent from the stakeholders,” he said.

“We have spent the scholarship fund to construct the building and pledge to distribute second instalment of the scholarship to students,” he said.

Teachers said the second instalment would not reach the school until the building was completed. Similarly, resource person Prem Raj Regmi said the school had informed him that the school had distributed scholarship to students.

Meanwhile, technical assistant Umesh Regmi at DEO said the office had deposited last year’s scholarship amount in all of the schools’ accounts in the district. “We will investigate why Pancha Laxmi Lower Secondary has yet to distribute the scholarship amount,” he added.

He further informed that it was stated clearly that the scholarship amount should not have been spent for any other purpose.