Aggrieved Teachers Association of Nagaland(ATAN), in a representation addressed to the commissioner and secretary & ex-officio director school education, has demanded cancellation/revocation of the report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and instead order for a fresh inquiry by an “independent expert committee” or requisition all available posts of teachers and also to conduct impartial selection examination against vacancies.
In a voluminous representation alleging flaws in the SIT report ATAN convenor Vikato Swu and secretary Limayanger slammed the Department of Education (DSE) for not being transparent in furnishing details of SIT report on those under ‘Doubtful category’, who unlike other categories, were drawing salaries till date pending verification of their educational documents.
ATAN said on obtaining summary report of SIT, ATAN maintained that the DSE claimed forensic tests were conducted to determine the authenticity of the appointments. However, quoting the very summary report of the SIT, ATAN said no expert tests were conducted to arrive at findings; no forensic tests ,no expert opinion or verification sought from educational institutions before listing the four categories.
Citing SIT report, ATAN pointed out that 5056 teachers were physically verified and documents scrutinized and ascertained 2805 were genuine appointees, 1156 whose appointment were temporary were grouped under Bogus and 1095 with doubtful or forged appointments against doubtful vacancy for five to 30 years and fake documents grouped under ‘Doubtful’ category but allowed to continue pending verification of their documents. ATAN said SIT shifted onus on state government and the latter allegedly concealed the findings which allowed them to continue in service “indefinitely”.
ATAN pointed out that as per SIT report, the DSE could hand over appointment files only from the year 2005 onwards while the SIT probe was from the period 2002-2009.
It said DSE could only furnish 23 appointment orders out of not less than 40 that were sought. DSE could submit names of appointees in chronological order from the date of creation of posts only from 2006 onwards with regard to 1991 creation orders.There was no record of appointment order for 15 years prior to 2006. ATAN pointed out that the SIT was to investigate appointments from the period 2002-2009 but did not get access to records prior to 2005, as they were destroyed by the DSE, admitted even by the SIT in its report.
ATAN said SIT had revealed that those falling under ‘Bogus’category were mostly appointed prior to 2005 and alleged that the yardstick applied by the SIT was ‘pick and choose’ in the absence of relevant records.
ATAN further claimed that appointments could not be termed bogus but only as irregular since they were made without selection through competitive examinations. ATAN further claimed that appointments were made after due approval of the government and cited paragraphs 9 and 13 in the SIT report.
ATAN said in the light of the above there was no rationale behind categorizing appointments as ‘Genuine’, ‘Bogus’ and ‘Doubtful’
It also cited paragraph 11 of the SIT report wherein under ‘constraints in investigations’ a sizeable number of appointments under temporary basis were categorized as Bogus,meaning that all temporary appointments between 2002 to 2009 fell under this category and excluded those appointed prior to 2002.
Further, ATAN claimed that teachers against whom the SIT had clubbed under either bogus or genuine categories were found in both lists. ATAN also slammed the Special Verification Committee and the District Verification Committees for failing to submit any report other than going by the SIT summary report. In the light of its demands, ATAN demanded that salaries of aggrieved teachers be paid and restored to original positions as they were recruited through open examinations as they were over aged to compete for available vacancies.
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