The State Education Minister Arvind Pandey has directed that First Information Report be lodged against the teachers found guilty in 20 cases by the special investigation team (SIT) formed to investigate the teachers who had secured Government jobs on the basis of forged certificates. He also directed immediate transfer of two clerks of the Bahadrabad (Haridwar) Deputy Education Officer, to remote district following a complaint about them not cooperating with the SIT in the probe. The Minister issued these directions while presiding over a joint meeting of the SIT and Education department at the secretariat here on Monday.
Chairing the meeting, the Education Minister reviewed the progress in the SIT probe. During discussion it was revealed that a complaint had been received about two clerical cadre personnel Pavan Kumar and Manoj Chauhan not cooperating in the probe, considering which the Minister ordered their immediate transfer to a remote district. The Minister, further, directed that as recommended by the SIT, FIRs should be lodged soon against teachers found guilty in 20 cases in addition to which action should also be taken against the appointing officer in such cases.
It is pertinent to mention here that the State administration had decided to get a probe done by the SIT after the certificates of some teachers appointed during the past five years in primary schools along with some teachers employed in inter- colleges were found to be fake. The Education department provided service related documents of teachers appointed during 2012 to 2016 to the SIT. The process of verification of these documents is currently underway. Further, of the complaints received from various sources against 365 teachers, 161 have been disposed of. The SIT in charge Shweta Choubey informed the Minister that following verification of documents related to 42 teachers, the SIT had recommended lodging of FIR in 20 cases to the education directorate while investigation is underway in the 22 other cases. She ,further, said that for checking the certificates and documents, universities/colleges demand a fee. The police should be exempted from paying such fee for probing the documents.
The Education Minister assured effective advocacy on the issue and directed that if needed the necessary funds should provided from the education department.
Education secretary Bhupinder Kaur Aulakh, director general Alok Shekhar Tiwari and other officials concerned were also present in the meeting.