[Amar Sangno]
ITANAGAR, 6 Jul: All is not well with the state’s education department. It was recently in the news for the abysmal performance by students in the state board and the CBSE exams and supply of used laptops to meritorious students.
Now it has emerged that several people were appointed illegally, forcing a probe by an embarrassed state government.
The state government on Thursday gave approval to the vigilance department’s Special Investigation Cell (SIC) to probe into rampant illegal appointment of primary teachers (PRT), trained graduate teachers (TGT) and other multitasking staffers in the education department.
A government official, seeking anonymity, confirmed that Chief Minister Pema Khandu has given the nod to the SIC to initiate a probe into the aforementioned illegal appointments.
This development comes a week after the SIC had reportedly submitted its preliminary inquiry report, based on an FIR lodged by Arunachal Pradesh Youth Congress (APYC) president Tarh Johny against 28 PRTs who were allegedly appointed through fraudulent means by the then elementary education director.
The matter of illegal appointment of 28 PRTs had been raised by the All Longding District Students’ Union in May 2023, claiming that 28 PRTs had been appointed in the district without floating any advertisement or conducting any interview. The union had said that the fraudulent appointments grossly undermined the laid down recruitment rules.
The government’s giving approval means that the SIC will register a regular case, as there is growing apprehension that the illegal appointments might be part of a larger cash-for-job scam in the state.
Acting on the APYC’s complaint, the education department issued termination letters to all 28 PRTs on 20 June, stating that their appointments were “forged and fabricated” and their names were “not at all recommended or found by the departmental promotion committee (DPC) during its meeting held on 28 September, 2020,” under the chairmanship of the then Education Commissioner Niharika Rai.
It is learnt that, during the DPC meeting held on 28 September, the jobs of 294 PRTs serving as contractual teachers under the ISSE, including PRTs under the 5 percent sports quota and 12 PRTs under the PWD, were regularised.
Sources revealed that “the appointment orders of the 28 illegal PRTs bore the same order number of the original appointment orders issued after the DPC meeting of 28 September, 2020, mentioning the approval of the government (vide UO Number 853) on 2 November, 2020).”
The sources further revealed that the authority flouted the recruitment rules by bypassing the Arunachal Pradesh Staff Selection Board (APSSB).
The APSSB was created in 2018 by the state government to conduct recruitment examinations for all kinds of Group C posts.
The establishment of the APSSB is considered to be one of the landmark decisions of the Khandu government, reflecting the government’s resolve to establish a free, fair and merit-based recruitment system.
The Arunachal Times has learnt that all the appointment orders had been replicated from the original appointment orders given to genuine PRTs who were regularised after the DPC meeting of 28 September, 2020. In some instances, the same UO number was used twice by the then elementary education director Tapi Gao.
The 28 PRTs had been drawing salary from January 2021 to April 2023 from the Longding DDSE. It is learnt that, among the 28, six PRTs had not even joined the schools concerned but were drawing salary from the DDSE office.
This daily has also learnt that the SIC had established prima facie evidences in its preliminary inquiry report and strongly suggested to the government to approve registration of a regular case against Gao and other persons involved on charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct, and illegal gratification by public servants under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
This daily reached out to Gao over WhatsApp, seeking his clarification, but he did not offer any comment.
