Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS)

Bengaluru, Sep 30: Though minister for primary and secondary education, N Mahesh has given orders to put a hold on the process of additional and compulsory transfer of school teachers, the continuation of counselling by the officers of the department of public instruction has caused has left the teachers, who had come for the counselling seeking transfer, in a dilemma.

The teachers are alleging that the note sent by the personal secretary with regards to the instructions of the minister is the reason for the chaos that is created on such a huge scale. The minister who had given instructions to the chief secretary of the department to hold the additional and compulsory transfers had instructed the officials to continue the process of transfers. Therefore, the officials have continued the counselling of the teachers seeking transfers. The teachers are the ones who are put in a fix due to this confusion. The teachers are grieving that some of them have attended the counselling while others have not.

Giving the clarification over the confusion, minister N Mahesh said, "In the first phase additional teachers have to be deployed. Teachers who do not have functions, need to be assigned the same. As a second priority compulsory transfer of teachers should be done. Compulsory transfers are done from Zone A (city, town) to Zone C (rural). At last, request transfers should be done. It is true that as humanitarian factors are more in request transfers, I had discussed the same with the department of law and parliamentary affairs and instructed the officers of the department of public instructions to do the request transfers first. However, when I came to know that this cannot be done as per law, I have directed the officials to put a stay on this process."

Opportunity to appeal for issues

Mahesh further clarified that "Teachers who feel that they have faced discrimination above the law with regards to additional and permanent transfers, then such teachers are given the opportunity to appeal to the zonal educational officer and deputy director of the district within three days of receiving of the order. If we find that the officer has committed a mistake, then action will be taken against such officers by keeping them under suspension."