Kendrapara, March 25: The school and mass education department has lodged police complaints against at least eight heads of government-run primary schools in Kendrapara for embezzling funds worth Rs 25 lakh earmarked for building toilets.

The accused headmasters were found to have misused funds released by the district wing of Sarva Shiksha Aviyan as part of its infrastructure development project in primary education.

The department has already suspended the accused headmasters and have lodged FIRs against them with various police stations across the district, said district education officer Sangram Sahu.

The action has lent credence to repeated allegations of misappropriation of funds released for the revamp of primary educational institutions. Last year, a block cluster resource co-ordinator under Sarva Shiksha Aviyan, Nanda Kishore Swain, was arrested after being accused of misuse of Rs 35 lakh central grants.

"The suspension and FIR was made on the basis of findings by the Sarva Shiksha Aviyan district project co-ordinator. There was corroborative evidence of misappropriation of government grants. It was found that toilets were either not built or partially built by the accused headmasters even though the sanctioned funds had been handed over to them long back. This sort of act is a criminal offence and it pertains to criminal breach of trust by a public servant," Sahu said.

The headmasters had failed to produce utilisation certificate in support of proper use of the sanctioned sum. As there was prima facie evidence of fund embezzlement, the FIRs were lodged against them, said Sahu.

Additional superintendent of police Ramesh Chandra Mohanty said: "The school and mass education department has lodged FIRs. We are initiating penal action against the accused."

"Barring the latest incident, over a dozen other instances of misuse of school building reconstruction grants and other Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan grants have come to light. Those found guilty of injudiciously using the central grants have already been placed under suspension," said Sahu.