The sudden orders transferring the District Education Officers (DEOs) of Anantapur and Nellore districts have not gone down well with the leaders of teacher associations in the State.
Special Chief Secretary, School Education, B. Rajasekhar, had on Thursday issued orders transferring the two DEOs “with immediate effect on administrative grounds,” and asked the Commissioner of School Education to make alternative arrangements in place of the two officials.
Finding fault with the timing of the transfers, leaders of the A.P. United Teachers’ Federation on Friday made a representation to the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mukesh Kumar Meena urging him to put the transfers on hold till the process of voter enrolment for the MLC elections, scheduled in March 2023, was completed.
Federation’s State president N. Venkateswarlu and general secretary K. S. S. Prasad and PDF MLCs V. Balasubramanyam, K. S. Lakshman Rao and Shaik Sabji said the DEOs’ transfer a few days before the last date for completing the voter enrolment raised doubts, and urged the CEO to issue orders cancelling the transfers.
November 7 is the last date for enrolment of voters for the MLC elections slated for March. The DEOs’ committees have been constituted to scrutinise the authenticity of the names of teachers who have registered from the private educational institutions at the field level.
The federation leaders said certain private school managements opposed to the scrutiny were trying to bring pressure on the DEOs through local political leaders for approval of even non-teaching staff as voters against the rule book.
The transfer of the Anantapur and Nellore DEOs, who did not “toe their line,” was “part of their plan to clear the hurdles in the way for enrolment of fake voters,” they said.
The voter verification is being done by examining the PF accounts of the last six years of the applicants, the mode of payment of salaries to them, and details available on the District Information System for Education (DISE). The federation leaders said to prevent weeding out of the fake voters, the DEOs were being shunted out of the two districts.
They said the CEO had assured them that he would take the matter to the notice of the Election Commission of India and act according to its guidelines.
A.P. Teachers’ Federation State president Ch. Manjula and general secretary K. Bhanu Murthy also condemned the transfer of the DEOs, and alleged that this was being done to benefit MLC candidates backed by the ruling party in the forthcoming elections.
Demanding transparency in the election process, they said the transfers should be withdrawn immediately.
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