Nagpur: Dadaji Bhuse, minister of state for rural development, announced the suspension of six education officials of Gadchiroli Zilla Parishad (ZP) for their alleged involvement in teachers' transfer scam.
Manikrao Thakre, deputy chairman of legislative council, junked the enquiry report of divisional commissioner Anup Kumar in this case and ordered the government to get an probe conducted by the principal secretary of the rural development department.
The scam had been raised by BJP MLCs Anil Sole and Nago Ganar through a calling attention motion. Ganar pointed out that only six clerks had been suspended in the case whereas top officials including the chief executive officer (CEO) of Gadchiroli ZP were involved.
"Bogus transfer orders for 220 teachers had been created and Rs5 lakh had been taken from each teacher. Many teachers were initially transferred too. The police have only booked six clerks for destroying the notes of the transfer scam. The fact is that the transfer orders itself were bogus so where is the question of their notes?" he said.
Ganar demanded that the then CEO of Gadchiroli ZP be suspended. Bhuse replied that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis would take a decision in this regard as the CEO is an IAS officer.
BJP MLC Girish Vyas pointed out that the minister of state had admitted that top officials had been spared. "What about the officials who conducted the enquiry? How could they let the guilty go scot free? Take action against them too as they seem to be hand in glove with the guilty officers," he said.
Deputy chairman Thakre told Bhuse that Anup Kumar's report was not satisfactory and hence, an enquiry should be conducted by the principal secretary. Bhuse agreed to implement the directive.
Congress MLC Haribhau Rathod earlier demanded that action should be taken against 220 teachers as they had paid a bribe of Rs5 lakh. However, the MoS did not respond to his demand.
