Government re-transfers Urmila Devi
The Kerala Government on Monday managed to wriggle free from the issue of penalisation of a Dalit woman principal of a Thiruvananthapuram school by revoking her original order of transfer and shifting her to another school in the city. Howe-ver, principal KK Urmila Devi complained that the Governm-ent was not fully just to her.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the State Assembly that the principal was re-transferred to the Government Model School in Thiruvananthapuram on the basis of an appeal she had submitted to him last Friday. Education Minister PK Abdurabb of the Muslim league, however, persisted that the decision to penalise the principal was not wrong.
The Education Department had transferred Urmila Devi, principal of the renowned Cotton Hill Higher Secondary School in Thiruvananthapuram to another Government school at Ayilam, 35 km away from the city, on the charge that she had caused humiliation to Abdurabb when he reached her school several hours behind schedule on June 16 to inaugurate a programme.
The Government was forced to reconsider this decision and to come to some settlement with the principal following intense protests from the Opposition lDF and students’ and teachers’ organisations. The CPI(M) and Urmila herself had alleged that she was penalised just because she was a Dalit.
The Education Department had transferred Urmila Devi even before the end of the 15-day period she was given to explain her conduct on June 16 as per the charge memo the department had served on her. She had filed a petition in the State Admini-strative Tribunal which posted it for consideration on July 4.
“The Government has not totally accepted my right position. But I am accepting the new decision because I don’t want to be seen as being defiant,” said Urmila about the second transfer order. Also, she went on 15-day leave startingMonday. Urmila, suffering from brain fungus infection, had appealed to Chandy to transfer her back to Cotton Hill School.
Abdurabb, who has just been trapped in another controversy regarding the changing of the colour of the classroom boards in certain schools from black to green, his party’s flag colour, told newsmen that there was nothing wrong in the decision to take disciplinary action against the principal.
“The Government does not have to consider the situation of the principal to transfer her. The 15-day time given to her was for replying to the show-cause notice,” he said, adding that the Government could not honour all demands of the principal. “The decision to post her in a school within city limits was taken considering her health condition,” he said.
Abdurabb had told the State Assembly last week that the principal had humiliated him in her speech at the function on June 16 for his late arrival.