Big impact: School in Banskandi relocated to original compound, Cachar Administration initiates magisterial probe

On December 31, 2022, Barak Bulletin published an exclusive report highlighting a huge scam unfolding under the nose of the administration. A school established in 1938 that is being run by the government of Assam was shifted to tents in the courtyard of a Veterinary Dispensary while the original compound was being used as a living room by a family of four sisters.

January 15, 2023, a fortnight later, Barak Bulletin can confirm that the school has been relocated to its original premises and 161 lower primary students no longer need to sit in the open to attend classes. 297 No Banskandi Maktab LP school was established in 1938 and in 2021, the school committee decided to shift it to makeshift tents. Meanwhile, construction of a new building has started at a plot remote to the current location.

While all this has happened, the administration did nothing hinting towards involvement in the scam. For the freshers, let’s decode what the scam is. The plot where the school is currently located is at the commercial hub of Banskandi and is priced at around one crore. The land where the school committee is building the new compound costs around Rs 25 lakh. So, the scam is worth Rs 75 lakh. According to the locals, the headmaster of the school, Kalam Ahmed along with Abdullah Barbhuiya also known as Abdullah Panchayat, who happens to be BJP’s minority Banskandi Morcha Mandal President reached an agreement with Nazim Uddin Laskar (Moyna) a forest guard by profession to sell the school plot for Rs 86 lakh plus the land in the interior where the school is to be built.

According to the Headmaster, the school has received funds from the Government of Assam but the surveyor has found the current complex next to the main road, unsatisfactory for the necessary upgradation and so, a new construction has been proposed. However, headmaster Kalam runs away each time he is asked why did they shift the classes to open before constructing the new building and more importantly, where is the order approving the relocation?

Initially, the school’s plot was supposed to be sold to a Grocery Store owner in the locality. He had paid a significant amount as advance too, however, when he saw that the circle officer is not issuing the permission considering it is a school compound, he walked out of the deal. If locals are to be believed then, Headmaster Kalam returned some amount of the advance that the Grocery Store owner paid.

Now why is Kalam dealing with the plot? As per records, the land was donated without any agreement by a man who has left behind four granddaughters. The granddaughters are related to Headmaster Kalam and they never attempted to stake a claim in the school compound. According to them, as long as the school was operating, they had no business staking a claim on the plot as it was donated for the school. However, when the classes were shifted and they were kept in the dark, they went to the school and started using the classrooms as their bedrooms.

The sisters say that Headmaster Kalam reached out to them and offered them some money in exchange for signatures on some papers. “Without knowing what we are signing on, we did put the pen to paper and soon got to know that we have been conned to seize the ownership of the plot where the school stood since 1938,” said one of the sisters. They also added that they weren’t paid the cash promised. On January 5, 2023, they lodged an FIR which has been registered by IC Banskandi. But, local residents are claiming that the Police have stopped investigating the matter.

While this explains why Headmaster Kalam is dealing with the plot, what remains unknown is why did the District Administration not take any action when the classes were held in the open with the pucca classrooms abandoned. Only after the report was published, the administration took action and relocated the classes to the original address.

ADC Cachar, Rajib Roy, said, “The matter has come to the notice of the administration and a magisterial probe has been called. Action will be taken as per the law if any inconsistencies are found in the entire chain of events.”

While the “PRish” response from ADC suggests some action is being taken, what remains unanswered is what took them so long to relocate the classes. Also, who all are involved in this potential several lakh scam? Few questions are seldom answered…