Jajpur: The district administration has suspended the headmistress of a government-run school in Dasarathapur block on charges of stealing midday meal rice meant for students and selling it in the market.

The suspended teacher has been identified as Pramila Kumari Tripathy, headmistress of Dadhibaman Upper Primary School at Bahabalapur in Nandipur gram panchayat.

District education officer Krushna Chandra Nayak on Friday suspended Tripathy after investigation reports confirmed her involvement in the misappropriation of the scheme rice.

The irregularities came to fore after some students, guardians and local people had brought it to the notice of Nayak last month.

"One truck laden with the meal rice had reached our school last month. But instead of unloading four bags of rice, it gave us three. The worker, who was in-charge of unloading, showed a receipt that the headmistress received four bags of rice," a local resident said. On this, guardians and local people met Nayak and lodged a complaint against the headmistress.

On receiving public complaints of misappropriation of the meal rice by the headmistress, Nayak had directed the Dasarathapur block education officer to inquiry into the matter.

"During inquiry, it was found that the headmistress had misappropriated the meal rice meant for the school," Nayak said.