Dimapur, September 13 (MExN): The department of School Education today issued records and “status” related to the “wrongful appointment” of teachers as was investigated by the Special Investigation Team of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption cell.
All actions taken by the department, a circular from Commissioner & Secretary Mhathung Kithan said, were strictly “as a follow-up to the SIT (Vigilance & Anti Corruption) report and subsequent government decisions” following the “principles of natural justice and Rule of Law”. It is for this reason “it is not in good taste” for any group or individual to “express their resentment against the government or any particular person/functionary of the government.”
The department said the SIT in its report on February 26, 2010 gave details of 3 categories of teachers under investigation. The “Bogus” were found to be 1156, the “Doubtful” at 1095 and the “Absentee” at 1084, totaling 3335. A committee was constituted to look into the SIT report, chaired by the Commissioner & Secretary of School Education. A meeting was held on March 4, 2010 and a number of decisions taken. It was decided that the services of the 1156 identified ‘bogus appointees’ would be terminated and entire salaries and allowances drawn by this category of appointees should be recovered.
With regard to the “doubtful appointees”, 1095 teachers, the committee decided that the final results of the documents and records submitted to the investigating agency for examination and authentication should be awaited before taking any further action. For the “absentees,” it was decided that they would be given another opportunity to “prove their credentials” and their salaries would be withheld till their “genuiness” is proved.
Accordingly, the department said, a “Cabinet memo” was prepared and on March 9, 2010, the Cabinet decided that, among others, the Education department would set up special verification committees of officers for every district. These were to consist of senior officers of various departments, officers of the district administration and police to verify all “bogus” and “absentee” teachers at the district-level within a period of two months. All the categories of teachers should appear before the committee with two copies of their recent passport photographs and all educational certificates and other relevant documents concerning their original appointment order and transfer order to their present posting places.
Then, the Special Verification Committee (SVC) headed by Deputy Commissioners of respective districts submitted their reports by May 2010. A fresh “Cabinet memo” was submitted and deliberated by the Cabinet on May 18, 2010. The Cabinet decided that the department should initiate immediate action to terminate/cancel all fraudulent appointments after issuing show cause notices, the circular stated.
The action taken
Accordingly, Show-Cause notices to the “bogus”, “absentee” and “doubtful” teachers were issued to the total 1941 teachers “bogus – 1091 + doubtful- 380 + Absentee – 444 + reported genuine in the first SIT Report – 26) between June 4, 2010 and August 12, 2010.
So far only 84 teachers indicted of having fake educational certificates from among the “bogus” category have been issued termination orders on August 27, 2010, the department said. The appointment of teachers belonging to the “bogus” category and confirmed by SIT as possessing forged appointment orders numbering 425 are being terminated/cancelled after having been served Show-Cause notices of 30 days in June 2010.
“For the rest of the teachers in the bogus category, a departmental committee is being constituted to examine each case on merit for consideration of the government. It is clarified that this concession will be not applicable to the 425 ‘forged’ appointees whose appointments are being terminated/cancelled and those 84 teachers whose appointments have been already cancelled/terminated for possession of ‘fake’ educational certificates,” the School Education department said.
Under the “doubtful” category, the department said the appointment of all the teachers indicted and confirmed as possessing fake educational certificates and forged appointment orders will be terminated/cancelled. The rest of the teachers with various indictments such as “fake post creation, direct appointments on temporary basis” other than those confirmed to posses “fake” educational certificates and “forged” appointment orders, will be processed and considered following the same procedure as in the case of the bogus category.
For the “absentee” category, the department said the salaries of the 313 teachers found genuine as of now by the Departmental Verification Committee are released.
The appointment of 338 teachers under this category is terminated/cancelled after having been served Show-Cause notices of 30 days in June 2010.
The department said 401 teachers (235 teachers who appeared to the Departmental Verification Committee but not found genuine and plus, 166 teachers who did not report to the Special Verification Committee) will be issued Show-Cause notices as to why their service should not be terminated/cancelled.
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