Mumbai: Tendulkar's alma mater Shardashram school board accused of embezzlement

Shardashram Vidyamandir the school famous as the alma mater of noted cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar Vinod Kambli and Ajit Agarkar is in the news again but for the wrong reasons this time One of the trustees of the school in Dadar has accused the board of trustees of misappropriation of funds which he suspects are to the tune of Rs 35 croreAccusing the other trust members of embezzling crores of rupees from the trust in the name of repair and new construction illegally without the general bodys approval the trustee Chandrakant Sangar has written to the Charity Commissioner this weekSangar who is the Shardashram Vidyamandir trustrsquos secretary claimed that the board of trustees awarded a contract for the repair and construction of the new building to a contractor in April without inviting bids ldquoEverything was done without discussing or obtaining the approval of the governing council and general body thus violating the rulesrdquo Sangar saidSangar claimed that before awarding the contract only cost estimates for the work were obtained from selected contractors When this became known Sangar contacted Rajan Gupte the president of the Shardasharam Vidyamandir Trust However Sangar claimed that despite repeated complaints no action was taken prompting him to contact the Charity CommissionerIn his complaint to the Charity Commissioner Sangar claimed that despite the lack of a tendering process a threemember committee was formed to award the contract He said in his letter ldquoThere was a discrepancy even in the repair work of the studentsrsquo toiletrdquo He alleged that in the bidding process for the repair work of the studentsrsquo toilet the same company bid multiple times using different names He also alleged that he and the joint secretary were kept in the dark ldquoDespite holding the post of secretary in the trust they awarded contracts and made important decisions without my signature on themrdquo he addedAccording to Sangar this is not the first instance of bungling in the trusts work and misappropriation of funds Sangar stated in his letter to the Charity Commissioner that the trust had previously suffered financial losses Giving one such example in his letter he said ldquoBetween 2014 and March 31 2022 the trust got repairs worth Rs 125 crore done however over Rs 3 crore was siphoned off for the workrdquo Sangar has complained that he suspects embezzlement and misappropriation of funds totalling at least Rs 35 crorePradeep Sawant a Shardashram Vidyamandir alumnus and member of the Mumbai Universitys academic council has also written to the charity commissioner on Wednesday ldquoThese are serious allegations that should not be taken lightly The money at stake is hardearned by the parents of the student We have contacted the charity commissioner and requested an investigation into the situation If the allegations are found to be true severe punishment should be meted out to those responsiblerdquo said SawantlsquoWork of vested interestsrsquoAccording to Gajendra Shetty chairman of Shardashram English Medium School the accusation is the work of those with grudges and vested interests ldquoSuch incidents will only tarnish the organisationrsquos reputation Chandrakant Sangar has a problem because he was not named to the board of directors I accept that I may have made some procedural errors but not that I misappropriated fundsrdquo Shetty saidShetty further said ldquoThe renovation and repair work had been stalled for three years due to the pandemic We only had 45 days to finish repairing the studentsrsquo toilets and renovating the classrooms We did not publish an advertisement in the newspaper because it was a timeconsuming process Instead we did research on previous school projects and hired a project management consultant Unlike what Sangar claims we floated a tender A work order was issued Another mistake was failing to share and circulate the amount in the work order with the governing council The error was corrected and the governing council approved it We have no ulterior motives and the work done is transparentrdquo