89 school girls found missing during surprise inspection at hostel in UP, FIR filed against 4

GONDA: A police complaint was registered against 4 persons, including the hostel warden, after a surprise inspection discovered that of the 100 girls, 89 girls were found allegedly missing from a hostel of a state government-run residential school in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda district, a police official said.

District Magistrate Neha Sharma conducted a surprise inspection at the Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls School in Paraspur late Monday night.

Seeing the chaos in the school premises, the District Magistrate reprimanded those responsible for the negligence and spoke to the 11 girl students present in the hostel and took stock of the facilities being provided in the school.

On the instructions of the District Magistrate, District Basic Education Officer (BSA) and District Coordinator Girl Education also reached the school late Monday night.

During the inspection, the officials found only 11 girl students present in the school of the total 100. No clear answer was given by the hostel warden Sarita Singh in respect of the remaining 89 girl students.

The presence of girl students of classes 7 and 8 was not recorded in the attendance register after August 17 whereas fake attendance was shown by the warden on the Prerna portal and the amount was adjusted/paid accordingly.

In view of the financial irregularities in the school, the irregularities found during the inspection and the negligence, an FIR was lodged late Monday night against four, including the hostel warden at the Paraspur police station.

The District Coordinator Girls Education told that there are clear instructions to the warden that if any girl child goes out of the school premises, her details should be mentioned in the school register. There has been negligence in this regard by the warden in the Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls School in Paraspur.

Information regarding moving out of the girl students was not recorded in the movement register.

During this inspection, telephonic talks were held with the parents of many girl students, in which the parents were informed that the girl students would go home on August 19. While it was informed by the warden that the girls went home on August 21.

During the phone conversation, it was found that the girl students were at their respective homes.

District coordinator girl education said that the school warden, full-time teacher, watchman and Prantiya Raksha Dal (PRD) jawan are responsible for the safety of girl students, but here the responsibilities have not been discharged, due to which an FIR was lodged against warden Sarita Singh, full-time teacher Susham Pal, Chowkidar Vishnu Pratap Singh and PRD jawan Dilip Kumar Mishra.