For Lifetime Achievement Award,UT Education dept selects own men

If this comes as a shocking revelation,there is more to it,as till date,this award has been awarded to those who have either retired or are nearing retirement from their service. This year it was given to two officers who have five and ten years of service left.

District Education Officer Chanchal Singh and Registrar Arjun Dev were awarded with the lifetime achievement award on Sunday. And,Singh is to retire in 2015 and Dev would retire in 2020.

DEO Singh was the member of the selection committee and Dev was also officially asked to shortlist and recommend names of the staff for the awards. Along with them,other committee members included Director State Institute of Education,Dr S S Dahiya; Principal Government Model Senior Secondary School,Sector 35 Raviraj Kaur; Principal Government Model Senior Secondary School,Sector 33 Surinder Singh; and Principal of Dev Samaj Senior Secondary School,Sector 21 Smriti Kanwar.

The award which was introduced by the Director Public Instruction (schools) S K Setia in 2008 and given to only one staff member of the department. This was followed by awarding two member— – DEO and registrar in 2009. The award is given for the contributions in the field of education and the awardee gets Rs 15,000 cash.

This twist in the tale has not only deprived a deserving candidate but has raised questions on the credibility of the award.

“Though I have recommended the names of my staff members working under me for other awards,I have not recommended my own name for the award,” said the registrar.

A similar justification came from Singh. “Since I was the member of the selection committee,I did not recommend myself.”

Surprisingly,the officials approving the final list of this award could not check out this anomaly in the names of the recipients. As from the DEO office the final list of awardees is sent for approval to DPI (s),which is further sent to secretary (education).

Secretary (Education) Ram Niwas said he was not aware whether these two officials were the members in the selection committee or not. DPI (s) P K Sharma said,“Though DEO was member of the selection committee and the registrar recommended other staff members. I recommended the DEO’s and registrar’s name personally at my own level.”

Interestingly,the HCS officer appointed as the DPI (s) recommending the names for the Lifetime Achievement Awards has joined the position on August 9 this year and it is commendable on his part to have assessed the achievements in both these recipients in such a short time.