Former HP Education Board chairman penalised

Dharamshala, Aug 6 (UNI) Board of Directors of Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education has decided to issue notice to the former chairman of the Board Mr B R Rahi to pay Rs 12.30 lakh as a penalty which the Board has spent in expunching the alleged "rude remarks" made by him against the teachers community and his name from the introductory page of 1.20 crore NCERT books.

Spokesperson of the Board today said that Board of Directors in its meeting yesterday made it clear that Mr Rahi was not supposed to write his name on the introductory page of the books and the "rude remarks" regarding teachers was resented by the teachers community and both needed to be expunched which resulted in an expenditure of Rs 12.30 lakh and an unwanted burden on the Board.

Board sources said that the Board of Directors decided to issue notice which would be served to Mr Rahi shortly asking him to deposit Rs 12.30 Lakhs in the Board's account.

Meanwhile, the Board of Directors also decided to approach the vigilance department to move against Rajesh Gupta alias Rocky, an owner of a private school, for alleged misappropriation of the funds collected for carrying out tournament organised by the Board of the School Education for the privately managed schools in the state.

The audit had detected 29 objections in the accounts of the tournaments of the privately managed schools.

In the meeting the Board also decided to simplify the process of affiliation with reduction of the cost of application form for affiliation from Rs 500 to Rs 300 besides the number of the documents to be submitted for affiliation too have been reduced.

UNI XC PS 1435