Odisha Vigilance officials on Thursday nabbed Chandrajit Parija, a programmer attached to the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan office in Jagatsinghpur, while he was allegedly accepting a Rs 30,000 bribe to facilitate the release of pending bills for digital blackboards installed in schools across the district.
According to Vigilance sources, Parija worked in the office of the district education officer-cum-district project coordinator of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and was a member of the procurement and technical committee. His responsibilities included inspecting the installation work and certifying it before the bills could be released to the executant.
The complainant allegedly approached Parija several times to request an inspection of the completed digital-blackboard installations. Instead of arranging the inspection, Parija allegedly demanded Rs 30,000 to process and clear the pending bills, the sources said.
After the alleged demand was reported, Odisha Vigilance officials laid a trap. Parija was caught while allegedly accepting the money from the complainant on Thursday, and the entire tainted amount was seized from him.
The case places the spotlight on the administrative process behind school technology projects. Installation work must be inspected and certified before contractors or executants receive payment, making the technical and procurement committees a key link between physical completion and the release of public funds. In this case, the alleged demand was connected to that certification and bill-processing chain, according to the Vigilance account.
Following the trap, simultaneous searches were conducted at three locations linked to Parija as part of a disproportionate-assets investigation. The source report did not provide details of the locations searched or disclose the findings of those searches.
The allegations concern the processing of bills related to digital blackboards in schools across Jagatsinghpur district. Further legal and departmental action will depend on the Vigilance investigation and proceedings arising from the trap.
