KHAAR (Bajaur Agency), Dec 28: The education department here has detected a huge embezzlement in the funds meant for scholarships for the poor students and initiated an action against the responsible clerk, sources told Dawn.

The action was taken after principals of several schools lodged complaints against the clerk who dealt with the scholarship funds.

When the agency education officer, Syed Razi Shah, investigated the matter, it was revealed that the clerk had withdrawn the fund through forgery.

The sources said the clerk had siphoned off scholarships of 50 students of each school in the agency. The education officer has taken the relevant record into custody and referred his case to the director education, Fata, for action.

Meanwhile, the education officer has also ordered the accounts department to stop deduction from the salaries of schoolteachers.

Sources said that sometime back, an account officer of the education department had confessed to have misappropriated a large sum of money.

The officer had been suspended, but was later reinstated.

After the reinstatement, the officer began deductions from the teachers’ salaries to recover the embezzled amount.

The teacher community had lodged a complaint with the education officer against the deductions.