Teachers suppress probe by greasing palms of officials
Jajpur/Korei: Despite repeated directives from the Directorate of Elementary Education for action against teachers who have obtained their jobs with fake certificates, Jajpur district has seen little progress in this regard.
According to sources, the district has over 200 such fake teachers with 70 of them posted in Korei block alone. Orders sent to the District Education Officer (DEO), either from the Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell or the state School and Mass Education department, to identify and act against such individuals have become ineffective. Sources alleged that these errant teachers have managed to evade action by greasing the palms of some unscrupulous officials to suppress investigation and subsequent measures against them. While other districts have taken action against such fraudulent teachers, those in Jajpur district appear to be enjoying protection. The Directorate of Elementary Education issued a fresh directive (Letter No. 7820) instructing DEOs to submit detailed reports on fake certificate cases April 23.
However, whether this order will yield results in Jajpur remains to be seen. Lack of action against nine such fake teachers hailing from Ashanajhara village under Korei block is a case at this point. The nine persons have allegedly secured teaching jobs under the Korei education cluster by submitting fake caste certificates showing them as members of Scheduled Tribes (ST). These individuals are posted in government schools at Ashanajhara, SK Gadia, Sheetalgobindpur, Mathurapur, Jaintira, Dhanatri, and Gajendrapur, as well as in MLA High School and Haldigadia Primary School under the block. Complaints against these fraudulent appointments have surfaced at multiple government levels, but no concrete action has been taken so far. Earlier, two teachers of the same caste hailing from Ashanajhara had been suspended by the then-DEO Ranjan Kumar Giri after allegations surfaced that they had forged caste certificates to secure their jobs. However, despite the availability of supporting evidence, no action such as suspension of salary or issuance of notice for caste certificate verification has been taken against the nine errant teachers from Ashanajhara. These teachers are reportedly claiming publicly that financial transactions of Rs 2 lakh at the District Education Office and Rs 1 lakh at the Block Education Office have been made to suppress an inquiry directed by the Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell. Block Education Officer (BEO) Sudarshan Mallik said that the suspected teachers had been instructed to submit valid caste certificates by April 30.
However, none have complied so far. He added that they will be given an extension of up to three months. If they fail to submit valid caste certificates within the deadline, action will be taken, he added. When contacted, District Education Officer Nityananda Barik said that the responsibility of acting on the order of the CM’s grievance cell has been assigned to the BEO. He assured that appropriate steps will be taken following further discussions with the BEO.
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