Dead, retired teachers put on Punjab local bodies poll duties, union protests

In a glaring administrative lapse, the Education Department has assigned duties for the forthcoming zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections to retired and even dead teachers.

Without updating its list of serving teachers, the department put one dead and four retired teachers on election duty in the Ludhiana zone. In the Patiala zone, a teacher who had passed away and another who had retired were assigned the task. Both were even issued show-cause notices for skipping the mandatory election rehearsal, with warning of a possible police action.

Teacher unions have condemned the department’s faux pas, calling it an “irresponsible act”. In Ludhiana, the District Education Officer maintained that it was the responsibility of school heads and principals to inform the department about teachers who were no longer in service. Displaying their anger, teachers staged a protest outside the office of the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) in Patiala.

A representative of the teacher union said, “Gurdarshan Kaur, who passed away while she was posted at Government School Sangowal, was assigned election duty along with retired teachers Ashok Kumari, Makhan Singh, Harjit Singh and Amrjit Singh from the Haibowal and Machhiwara areas”.

In the Patiala zone, teachers Neetu Kaushal and Gurmeet Kaur were assigned election duty in the latest list issued by the authorities. However, Neetu passed away on January 9 this year, while Gurmeet Kaur retired in April.

Gurmeet Kaur said she was shocked to receive a letter directing her to attend a duty rehearsal at Government ITI, Nabha Road, on December 8. When she did not attend, another stern letter was issued, summoning her to appear before the Election Officer to explain her absence and warning of legal and police action. “I have been retired for eight months, yet I am being issued these warning letters, which are causing me mental distress,” she said.

Devinder Singh Sidhu, vice-president of the Democratic Teachers’ Front, said the department’s actions had become the talk of the town. “The officials concerned must check and update records of retired and deceased teachers. Their pension and retirement data is maintained by the department. This shows they did not bother to update records and retired teachers were still asked to report,” said Sidhu.

Ludhiana DEO Dimple Madan said, “This is the fault of school heads or in-charges who didn’t update their staff data despite reminders. Neither the Education Department nor the DC office is responsible for the mess. Only the schools are responsible.” Officials from the ADC office (Patiala) met protesters and assured them that their concerns would be addressed and that technical errors in duty allocation would be rectified soon.