Shillong, Sep 14: The president of the Khasi Jaintia Deficit School Teachers’ Association (KJDSTA), Boswell Pala, has given a nuanced take on the demand for the removal of Vijay Kumar Mantri as Commissioner and Secretary in the Education Department.
Referring to the Voice of the People’s Party (VPP) demand that Mantri be axed from his role as the Education Department’s top civil servant, Pala said that the KJDSTA is “not going to say anything.”
However, it disagreed with Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui’s defence of the official, saying that Mantri “is instrumental in bringing about a lot” of “hurt and harm” to deficit teachers.
“Deficit teachers are faced with pending issues and pending dues, like the delay in the completion of the implementation of CPF and NPS, delay in the announcement of DA due since last year, etc,” Pala said. “And now we also have the issue of the Structured Pay Framework (SPF), which is the abolishment of the sanctioned Deficit posts as well as the government posts of teachers.”
The KJDSTA admitted that a civil servant, no matter how high up, cannot create policies without the direction and blessings of the government. But the association was not happy with the “blind support and support driven by self-interest” given by Rymbui to Mantri, “which is hurting us and it is going to harm the education system in Meghalaya more and more.”
Pala listed several examples of what he described as negative actions taken by Mantri. According to him, the official called a meeting without teachers present to change the way Centralised Provident Fund (CPF) for teachers is managed; minutes of a meeting with teachers were “blatantly” manipulated into presenting a version of events that never happened; orders for PRAN registration were directed at teachers repeatedly despite Mantri’s earlier supposed assertion that it was only for non-deficit teachers; the alleged aspersions he has cast on past officers; how he is “clearly” the architect of the much-maligned CM’s guidebook; and delays in filling vacancies.
The icing on the cake for deficit teachers is the plan to “abolish long established sanctioned posts of teaching” through the SPF. Pala said that deficit teachers were told repeatedly that the SPF was not meant for deficit teachers but then, in August, it was announced that new appointments to deficit and government teaching posts will be downgraded to SPF.
“Deficit and Government posts will now be abolished. Is this the kind of capability and hard work we need, when it is capability and hard work to harm a crucial sector such as education?” Pala asked, adding, “this notification will kill the education of our children in Meghalaya. Only gloaters and people driven by personal benefit can welcome the abolition of deficit and government sanctioned posts.”
