MANSEHRA, Sept 9: The lone government girls primary school in Jabory union council has been occupied by none other than the deputy district education officer himself, who has included the facility into his residence.

The school in Kanok locality was destroyed in the October 2005 earthquake. The Unicef in collaboration with the Church World Service reconstructed the school in 2010 and handed it over to the education department.

But Ghulam Mohammad Farooq, the deputy district education officer, Mansehra, who lives next to the school building, had occupied half of the school by demolishing one of the walls.

Amer Sher, the project engineer of the Unicef and Church World Service, had asked the Provincial Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority to get the school building vacated.

Mr Sher in a letter, a copy of which was also obtained by this correspondent, revealed that during a maintenance visit by him it was observed that Mr Farooq had forcefully occupied a portion of the school building after demolishing the northern boundary wall creating access to the school premises.

The letter said the official was using a room as a bedroom and had placed his personal belongings, including beds, chairs, dressing table etc there.

Fazlur Rahman, the Erra`s provincial coordinator of donors/NGOs, who had written letters to provincial secretary education, commissioner and DIG Hazara, DCO and DPO Mansehra, seeking legal action against Mr Farooq for occupying the school building, on contact said Mr Farooq was still occupying the building putting the future of the girls students at stake.

He said the provincial education department and divisional and district administrations had been informed about the issue.

When this correspond contacted Mr Farooq for his version, he was not present in his office.Dawn.