Students at the Government Girls’ Plus Two Residential School at Kadamkuan in Patna on Friday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Dec. 23: The administration today converted the house of suspended treasury clerk Girish Kumar in the Kadamkuan area into a residential government school.

Girish’s’ two-storeyed house is spread across an area of 4.75 decimals. There are around 12 rooms.

Around 1pm today, students, teachers and officials from the district welfare board reached Kadamkuan and opened the gates of the school. The students of Government Girls’ Plus Two Residential School were delighted at getting a chance to study in a more spacious and tidier environment than their earlier address at Keshri Nagar under Patliputra police station.

Around 140 students of the school would shift to the new campus.

Harendra Kumar Srivastava, the district welfare officer, said: “The residential school would be for students from Class VI to XII.”

Girish is the second tainted officer in the state whose house was confiscated and converted into a school. Earlier, the house of S.S. Verma, a 1981 batch IAS officer belonging to Bihar cadre, at Rukkanpura was converted into a government school. He was also found guilty of amassing wealth disproportionate to his known source of income.

A special court had ordered confiscation of Gupta’s house. But the tainted clerk moved high court. In November, the high court dismissed his appeal.

Gupta was accused of amassing assets worth Rs 51 lakh. A vigilance case was lodged against him in 2006 for amassing properties between 1992 and 2004. The assets, according to a vigilance probe, include two plots and the Kadamkuan house.

The students of Government Girls’ Plus Two Residential School were thrilled after entering their airy classrooms in Gupta’s house.

Khusbu Kumari, a student of Class IX, said: “The Keshri Nagar School was running from an under-construction building with small rooms. The worst part was that the residents used to dump garbage near the school boundary.”

Khusbu added that they found it difficult to have their meals because of the stench emanating from the dump.

Sonam Kumari, a Class IX student was also happy about the new school environment. Hailing from Harnaut in Nalanda, she said: “Corruption is the biggest evil and it should be dealt with strongly. The corrupt officials and politician are living a lavish life on public money while the poor are getting poorer by day.”

Echoing a similar opinion, principal Neelam Kumari said: “The government’s move to confiscate property of corrupt employees and opening a school is the right move.”