Furore in secondary education department over issuance of work order without tender

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, June 4, 2026

Massive corruption in all levels of society has been proliferating with the speed of delta variant of Covid but the infection is most prominently visible in government departments with most of the officers and employees desperately running after fast bucks. The latest proof in this regard has come from the department of secondary education where an OSD Pintu Paul Debbarma awarded a work order to an obscure company under the banner of ‘Maa Private Limited’ based in Ram Nagar area of Agartala without any tender for school management system, website running and SMS matters. Since the job assigned is serious by nature the credential of the company and the role of Pintu Paul Debbarma in issuing work order directly without any tender has is now becoming a major , specially in the context of certain errors noticed in the work.

Sources in the secondary education department said that Pintu Paul Debbarma,a resident of Bhati Abhay Nagar area, has been holding the post of Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in charge of IT section, statistics and stipend section for the past seven years. It was on April 21 2024 that Pintu Paul Debbarma had issued the direct work order for the obscure ‘Maa Private Limited’company with which the memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed that very day. This company was put in charge of controlling the server of the secondary education department’s website, preservation of personal data of the teachers and storage of all information on the admission and working of the ‘Vidyajyoti Schools’. Even though the work order had been issued through signing of the MOU two years ago the matter escaped notice that time but now the entire secondary education department is haunted by fear of mishandling of data by the obscure ‘Maa Private Limited’ company, specially in the context of certain errors and irregularities that have come to notice.

Sources said that the company put in charge of the work is being paid lakhs of rupees for the work but their competence in work is in question , specially the matter of sensitive data. There are also allegations that Pintu Paul Debbarma who is also known a man with shifting political loyalties did not award the work to the company on utilitarian purpose but was and continues to be a beneficiary of the entire shady process. There are now demands for a high level investigation into the entire deal and the manner in which it was done by Pintu Paul with the little known ‘Maa Private Limited’ company.

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