After having registered two separate cases, the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta has issued notices to the state chief secretary on complaints by senior Congress MLA Govind Singh, who has accused state minister for school education Archana Chitnis of causing financial loss to the exchequer running into several crores to benefit herself and those close to her.
Mr Singh told this newspaper on Friday that the Lokayukta had responded to his complaint against Ms Chitins by registering a case (No. 214/12) on September 24 this year. In his complaint, Mr Singh had pointed out that under the national secondary education campaign, `11.57 crore had been released to the state school education department by the Central government to take up minor repair works in schools.
The powers to spend this money and monitor its utilisation were vested in the school management and development committee (SMDC).
It is stated in the complaint by the Congress MLA that the state school education minister had misused her office and issued an order on June 16, 2010 ordering that blackboards in all the classes should be repaired and painted green with funds received from the Centre under the national secondary education campaign.
Subverting the procedures and norms, the work of painting the blackboards green was given to just two companies.
In his second complaint, Mr Singh has questioned the payment of `13.26 crores by the state school education department for subscribing Devputra, a children’s magazine published by Saraswati Bal Kalyan Nyas of Indore.