Sonepur: The headmaster of a primary school at Putkipali in Tarabha block has appointed a villager for Rs 2,000 a month to go to school on his behalf and mark his attendance.

This was revealed, along with several other startling irregularities, during a recent inspection in schools by Tarabha block development officer Prasanna Kumar Pandey. Pandey found out that headmaster Suresh Chandra Bag never comes to the school and one Gajapati Chouhan from nearby Singhari village marks his attendance at the school everyday against a monthly remuneration of Rs 2,000. The school's sikshya sahayak also hardly comes to report on duty.

Things do not stop here. The school's mid-day meal record shows every student to be present everyday while their attendance hardly takes place. Pandey also found that a primary school at Pandakimal village was getting closed at 2pm everyday instead of the scheduled time of 4pm.

Pandey has already submitted a report to the district collector and the district education officer of Sonepur in this regard.

"I have submitted a report to the collector and the district education officer. I have also asked the block education officer of Tarabha to initiate action against the erring teachers," Pandey said.

Tarabha block education officer Keshav Chandra Meher said that he had already initiated disciplinary action against the teachers.

"We have stopped one day salary of the teacher in Pandakimal and one month's salary of both the teachers of the Putkipali school. We have also sought explanation from the teachers of both the schools for their absence and other irregularities," Meher said.

Jumbo rescued

The forest and fire officials at Masinabila in Keonjhar district rescued a wild elephant calf stuck in the mud in a pond after nearly a seven-hour long operation on Sunday. The calf along with its mother came to the pond on Saturday night in search of water and got stuck in the mud. Though the mother elephant tried to rescue the calf, she failed to pull it out.