‘Disability’ enables teachers to tweak transfers in Pratapgarh

Physical disability,often regarded as a curse,is coming handy for hundreds of government teachers in Pratapgarh,who are using it as a pretext to seek transfers.

Written by: Express News Service

3 min readLucknowOct 8, 2009 03:29 AM IST First published on: Oct 8, 2009 at 03:29 AM IST

Physical disability,often regarded as a curse,is coming handy for hundreds of government teachers in Pratapgarh,who are using it as a pretext to seek transfers.

Of the 469 assistant teachers who received promotion this July,130 have sought transfers,producing fake certificates of disabilities. Or like Girish Chandra,a teacher at Antpur primary school at Mandhata,they produce fake disability certificates to cancel transfers.

Chandra submitted his application to the office of Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA). Chandra is not handicapped,said the BSA office,which had ordered an inquiry after some teachers made a written representation to check the malpractice.

Another teacher,Indrasen Singh,got posting at his village Pure Chauhan from Rainia on this ground. He has even joined duty. Yet another teacher,Rama Shukla,sought transfer with a fake certificate. “The teachers had not produced any such certificate at the time of getting the government job,” said a teacher.

“They did not fill up the column of physical handicap. Suddenly,in contrast to the known 25 disabled teachers,130 applications have been submitted in the office of the BSA seeking transfers.” These teachers have produced fake certificates because they want to stay near their villages,he added.

The BSA office woke up to the practice after approving 24 such transfers and the Basic Shikhsa Adhikary was charged with accepting bribes.

Denying the allegations,BSA Ashok Nath Tiwari said: “I have sent all such certificates to the Chief Medical Officer for verification. Now transfers will be done only after getting the verification. I will cancel the transfer done so far by me.” He added that legal action will be taken against teachers found guilty.

The CMO,Pratapgarh,Dr Madan Mohan,said he has not received any letter from the BSA,but if the BSA requested him,his office will do the verification.

“A racket is being run at the office of BSA and CMO,” said Prabhakar Dwivedi,a teacher.

“The CMO office issues fake certificates and the BSA office effects the transfers without verification. We will approach the district magistrate for an impartial inquiry,” he added.

On July 30,the government had promoted 496 assistant teachers in Pratapgarh district. As per government policy,transfer is mandatory with promotion.

But despite accepting promotions,some teachers teaching at primary schools in their villages,were reluctant to join their new postings. A few wanted to get postings as per their wishes.

But when the district administration mounted pressure on them to join their new postings,they submitted fake disability certificates and sought transfers.