[ Amar Sangno ]
CHANGLANG, 24 Oct: In a shocking development, the presence – or rather, the absence – of ghost staffers has surfaced in the education department in Changlang district.
The development comes in the wake of rampant illegal appointments made in the department across the state.
Changlang DC Sunny K Singh issued an order on 20 October, stating that “some ghost staffers have been detected in the education department who are drawing salaries without physical presence.”
Stating that there is a possibility of similar ghost staffers’ ‘presence’ in other departments also, Singh further directed all heads of departments in the district to “verify the status and submit a certificate that all employees of their respective departments exist on the ground.”
The DC had on 19 October issued a notice to the Changlang DDSE, directing the latter to “verify all the regular staffers, including teaching and non-teaching staffers such as LDC, UDC, MTS, etc, through BRCCs and CRCCs, in order to rule out the existence of any ghost staffer enrolled with the education department.”
“It has been brought to the notice of the administration that there appear few regular staffers of the education department whose presence in the district is difficult to establish, yet their salary is drawn every month,” the DC stated.
He further pointed out that “there is a possibility of ghost staffers drawing salaries without their presence, and their antecedents only exist on paper, which, if established to be correct, will be deemed illegal and unlawful.”
It is learnt that the DDSE is yet to respond to the DC’s directive to submit the report.
It is alleged that five staffers under the DDSE have questionable appointment orders. However, their salaries were processed till September this year from Itanagar.
Among the five staffers, it is alleged that one was attached with Deputy Speaker and Changlang MLA Tesam Pongte’s private residence, and another staffer was attached with the DDSE.
Unverified sources claimed that the salaries of the ghost staffers were held back recently, after a minor shuffling among the staffers in the directorate office. The sources further said that the matter came to light after a few questionable staffers started approaching various authorities, seeking remedy and reinstatement of their salaries.
It is reported also that an LDC and a UDC, who never joined duty in Changlang, were allegedly drawing their salaries.
“Their presence in the district could not be established. The salaries of the employees are made based on attendance registers; so there emerges a valid question that, if they were not present, how come their attendance was marked and thus salaries processed month after month?” asked an angry youth on condition of anonymity.
“The disclosure of this new episode has brought to the fore many unanswered questions for the education department to clarify,” he said.
It is alleged that the ghost staffers were appointed during the then DDSE Ego Doye’s tenure. However, when this daily contacted him, Doye denied the allegation and said that the appointments were made by the directorate and not by him.
When contacted, Education Commissioner Amjad Tak said that the education department is committed to unearth the truth. “If the allegations are true, appropriate action will be immediately initiated, whoever is involved in the scam,” Tak said.
The vigilance department is currently investigating illegal appointment of PRTs, TGTs, UDCs, LDCs and MTS staffers in the education department.
