It wasn’t just education officials but touts as well who were at the receiving end of Maharashtra education commissioner Purshottam Bhapkar during his surprise visit to the deputy director of education’s office. Bhapkar told officials to start maintaining a list of people who visit the office regularly and take extreme steps if necessary to stop the nexus between touts and certain officials. “Such touts keep blackmailing officials after befriending them. I want a system to screen visitors to be put in place immediately. Why do we see the same people everywhere, especially those from teachers’ organisations? Don’t they have teaching duties that they come here during working hours?,” Bhapkar frowned, and ordered that henceforth visitors can only meet department heads and not clerks. “All department heads must maintain a list of daily visitors and their purpose of visit. CCTV cameras have been installed but are not operational. It should be done within three days and one camera should be in the visitors area. If any teacher files repeated RTIs or complaints, conduct inspections at the school and take strict action in cases of malicious intent. If any teacher or tout is trying to blackmail officials, file cases against them,” Bhapkar instructed. Bhapkar also appealed for volunteers to lend a helping hand to the government in keeping a watch on offices and monitor such activities. “Since we are short of manpower, we want NGOs to come forward with volunteers or as part of CSR, if companies can help sponsor some third-party social audits,” he said. Since the office premise of the deputy director also houses other important departments, Bhapkar said that maintaining security of the premise during night is also important. He said that a circular should be issued asking all Class I officials to conduct night rounds at the office on a rotation basis.
