Raigad clerk unpaid for three years; Pandit Patil seeks SIT probe, suspension of education officer

Questions have been raised over the functioning of the secondary education department in Raigad district. Snehal Gajanan Wagh, appointed junior clerk on compassionate grounds at Mehendale High School and Junior College in Roha, has had to work without salary for the past three years. The school belongs to the Konkan Education Society. Senior leader and former MLA Pandit Patil alleges that the department's corrupt and arbitrary attitude has left this young woman from a poor family facing starvation.

Patil said there have been many such irregularities in the district. He demands that all approvals granted and suspicious transactions during the tenure of Raigad Zilla Parishad Secondary Education Officer Maharudra Nale be thoroughly investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), along the lines of Nashik. He also wants Nale suspended from service immediately. Patil says the secondary education department in Raigad is functioning in a manner even more serious and corrupt than in Nashik and Ahilyanagar, and that ordinary employees are being harassed. A detailed representation has been sent to the Chief Minister and the school education minister.

The sequence of events is as follows. Snehal's father, Gajanan Kamlakar Wagh, worked at the same Mehendale High School in Roha and died in service. As his heir, the management sent a proposal for approval of daughter Snehal's compassionate appointment to the Education Officer (Secondary), Zilla Parishad Raigad, on November 3, 2023. The education officer's office issued the approval order for the appointment on August 30, 2024. Then, on March 6, 2025, the secondary education officer's office sent a proposal to the Mumbai divisional deputy director of education's office to add Snehal Wagh's name to the Shalarth system.

Patil has made several allegations. According to him, people linked to the education department took money from the employee in exchange for promising a job and approvals. He called this a direct allegation. He says a girl from an ordinary, needy family has been working for three years without receiving a single rupee as honorarium or salary, and was misled with mere assurances.

According to Patil, a complaint on the matter was also lodged in person with the divisional deputy director of education, but no action followed. He said the deputy director's office had sought an explanation citing technical flaws and rules, but the education officer kept it pending for a year and only shuffled paperwork.

Patil also said that when public representatives contact Education Officer Maharudra Nale seeking answers, he does not take their calls and does not attend meetings.

Patil put his demand in these words: that Secondary Education Officer Maharudra Nale, who he says breaks rules and plays with an employee's future, be investigated by a separate SIT and suspended from service immediately, and that the victim be given justice for good, with back pay, through the government's offline process.