Dimapur | October 16 : After the ‘Bogus Teacher’ imbroglio, another teachers’ appointment scandal is quietly brewing (OR and on the brink of eruption) unaware to the majority of the masses. In this case, according to certain reliable reports, the state government has its back pinned against the wall, hit hard by a ‘contempt of court’ petition slapped against it. Though not in the larger public domain, this particular case traces its root back to the year 2003 and has been brewing since; and could well further escalate into a big issue for a government already neck deep in ‘appointment’ crises.
Reliable sources, who are in the know of the hush-hush affair report that the case is with regard to filling of some 700 odd vacancies in the school education department (i.e. appointment of under-graduate primary school teachers). The approximate figure is tipped to be at 738 vacant seats for all the districts of the state, while excluding one.
The sources on condition of anonymity referred back to the year 2003, when the School Education Department had floated public advertisement inviting applications from eligible candidates to fill some 738 vacant posts of under-graduate primary school teachers. In response, aspiring candidates duly applied and had sat for written examinations (Selection Test For Teachers 2003, the ‘Admit Card’ issued that time reads), jointly conducted by the respective District Education Offices along with the NBSE. Subsequent to the tests, oral/viva voce interviews were called for the hopefuls, who had cleared the first leg of the selection process. The oral interviews were said to have been successfully completed. Thereafter, only the final declaration of results and the appointment thereof; of the successful candidates, against the published vacant posts were awaited.
However, according to the sources, the result was never declared and is pending till date. Days and months passed yet there came no information with regard to the pending results. The exasperated candidates, who appeared for the viva voce jointly, took the matter to court and a case was filed at the Gauhati High Court sometime in 2004, the sources said. How long the hearing stretched could not be established. Nonetheless, the verdict came in favour of the litigants, yet they received little or no response from the government.
The aggrieved litigants finally, moved the Supreme Court this year. This time again, the verdict came in their favour with the apex court ordering the department in concern to re-conduct the interviews. The government was thus forced to respond, while with the assurance that it will conduct the interviews a second time for the candidates, who had appeared the oral interviews back in 2003. It also came with the assurance that the process of re-conducting the interviews and the resulting appointment of the successful candidates will be completed within a specified timeframe i.e. by the second week of October (11-14), 2011, the sources further disclosed.
A bulletin, in this regard, was also published in the newspapers in the month of July by the School Education Department informing those candidates, who had appeared the viva voce interviews of 2003, to submit their ‘Admit Cards’ in original. Near about 700 candidates is said to have surrendered their original admit cards in response.
Came October 14, by which date the interviews and appointments were supposed to have been completed as specified. However, again the government failed to live up to the assurance. And the reasons for which could not be ascertained. The government failing to meet the dateline and further failing to implement the earlier order of the Supreme Court, the litigants filed ‘contempt of court’ petition against the government the same day at the Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court. The hearing is scheduled for October 17, the sources said.
Reliable sources, who are in the know of the hush-hush affair report that the case is with regard to filling of some 700 odd vacancies in the school education department (i.e. appointment of under-graduate primary school teachers). The approximate figure is tipped to be at 738 vacant seats for all the districts of the state, while excluding one.
The sources on condition of anonymity referred back to the year 2003, when the School Education Department had floated public advertisement inviting applications from eligible candidates to fill some 738 vacant posts of under-graduate primary school teachers. In response, aspiring candidates duly applied and had sat for written examinations (Selection Test For Teachers 2003, the ‘Admit Card’ issued that time reads), jointly conducted by the respective District Education Offices along with the NBSE. Subsequent to the tests, oral/viva voce interviews were called for the hopefuls, who had cleared the first leg of the selection process. The oral interviews were said to have been successfully completed. Thereafter, only the final declaration of results and the appointment thereof; of the successful candidates, against the published vacant posts were awaited.
However, according to the sources, the result was never declared and is pending till date. Days and months passed yet there came no information with regard to the pending results. The exasperated candidates, who appeared for the viva voce jointly, took the matter to court and a case was filed at the Gauhati High Court sometime in 2004, the sources said. How long the hearing stretched could not be established. Nonetheless, the verdict came in favour of the litigants, yet they received little or no response from the government.
The aggrieved litigants finally, moved the Supreme Court this year. This time again, the verdict came in their favour with the apex court ordering the department in concern to re-conduct the interviews. The government was thus forced to respond, while with the assurance that it will conduct the interviews a second time for the candidates, who had appeared the oral interviews back in 2003. It also came with the assurance that the process of re-conducting the interviews and the resulting appointment of the successful candidates will be completed within a specified timeframe i.e. by the second week of October (11-14), 2011, the sources further disclosed.
A bulletin, in this regard, was also published in the newspapers in the month of July by the School Education Department informing those candidates, who had appeared the viva voce interviews of 2003, to submit their ‘Admit Cards’ in original. Near about 700 candidates is said to have surrendered their original admit cards in response.
Came October 14, by which date the interviews and appointments were supposed to have been completed as specified. However, again the government failed to live up to the assurance. And the reasons for which could not be ascertained. The government failing to meet the dateline and further failing to implement the earlier order of the Supreme Court, the litigants filed ‘contempt of court’ petition against the government the same day at the Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court. The hearing is scheduled for October 17, the sources said.
