According to Rakhi Raskar, who taught at PMC's school number 56 in Dattawadi, there were gross irregularities in the running of the school.
Fed up with alleged harassment by officials of the Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC) education board, a teacher, who was transferred from a municipal school in Dattawadi to a school in a remote area, spoke to the media on Tuesday, alleging that she paid the price for being a whistleblower.
According to Rakhi Raskar, who taught at PMC's school number 56 in Dattawadi, there were gross irregularities in the running of the school.
"A maid employed there used classrooms to keep her fridge and cupboards. She dried her washed clothes on benches. Her daughter's scooter used to be parked outside classrooms and would hurt children. She wouldn't listen to repeated reminders as she had some political connection. I called the board officials to the classrooms and showed them the reality," she alleged.
Raskar shared with the media pictures of inspection day that showed clothes drying on benches. "The cleaning lady was immediately transferred, but so was I. When I asked them my fault, they said other teachers had complained. But the fact is they were forced to sign as I had exposed embezzlement of school funds," she claimed.
A few parents of ex-students from the school stated that the education board officials, in connivance with school authorities, had cheated poor students of funds meant for scholarships.
A parent, Ranjana Hazare said, "One of my daughters passed out of the school last year. According to the government policy, she was entitled to Rs600 as scholarship as she belonged to the backward classes, but the amount wasn't paid stating that funds hadn't been received. In 2011, they got the funds for 2005-2007 and were supposed to pay us Rs1,800, instead of which they paid parents only Rs600," she said.
Another parent, Ranjana Tataode, said that they were abused on caste, against which parents have lodged a complaint under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989, with the social welfare department.
The PMC's education board chief, Ramchandra Jadhav said, "The teacher has gone to court to protest her transfer. It was done as the headmaster complained against her," he claimed. "She has created trouble in all the schools she worked. As far as the parents' complaints go, they are baseless. We held an inquiry and found all funds were distributed to students," he said.
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