BHAWANIPATNA: Police on Wednesday registered a case against district education officer (DEO) of
Kalahandi, Pradeep Kumar Nag, and two staffers of as many private security agencies for forging document to lure job aspirants for appointment as security guards in government-run adarsha vidyalayas in the district.
An FIR had been lodged against managing partner of
Shree Jagananth security agency Kailash Chandra Pradhan and Rakesh Kumar Rout of Sri Ram security agency apart from Nag.
An official source said the
Jagannath security agency got the contract for providing security guards for districts Puri, Cuttack, Khurda, Nayagarh and Keonjhar. Police said the security agency forged the ducument (contract letter) and mentioned that it has got the permission to provide services for entire Odisha, including Kalahandi. According to police, 39 persons had been appointed in adarsha vidyalayas in 13 blocks of Kalahandi by the service provider (security agency) in 2016. After one year of service, they were retrenched without any proper cause. And 34 new appointments were made through the district education officer of Kalahandi. Police said the security agency was taking bribe from unemployed persons to provide services. Recruitments were made again to get a fresh instalment of bribe, police said.
After sudden retrenchment, a group of employees went to
Cuttack DGP office, which decides the service provider (security agency) . During inquiry, it was revealed that the agency had forged the document, mentioning that it has got the contract to provide services for all the districts.
A retrenched employee, Pabitra Sahoo, 23, who was working as a science attendant in
Biswanathpur adarsh vidyalaya told the media that all of sudden they were informed about retrenchment by the district education officer. "We went to Cuttack office and came to know that the document had been forged," said Sahoo. Then he along with others lodged the FIR at the Town police station of Bhawanipatna.
Sub-divisional police officer of Bhawanipatna, Biranchi Narayan Dehury, said after getting the letter issued by DGP, Cuttack, Shree Jagannath security agency forged the document and outsourced the job to another agency namely Sri Ram security agency, headed by Rout. The SDPO further said most of the retrenched employees are yet to get the payment for 10 months - Rs 6,250 a month. He said after retrenchment, the new appointments were made through the district education office in 2017. The complicity of the DEO is suspected as it neither verified the document nor informed the higher authorities before giving appointments, not only once but twice, said Dehury.
On a query, DEO Nag said, "I am unaware of forging of documents." Further inquiry is on.
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