12 ‘disabled’ teachers get show-cause notice

Medical tests prove they were ineligible for jobs in ‘physically challenged’ quota

As many as 12 teachers working in Holenarasipur taluk have received show-cause notices from the Education Department for falsely securing jobs under the quota for the physically challenged. The medical tests, conducted based on a complaint of irregularities in recruitment, proved they were ineligible to claim the quota.

The notices have been served on them asking why criminal action should not be initiated against them. Now, the teachers may lose the jobs they have been holding for over 17 years. The Education Department is also looking into old records to find the doctors who cleared them as being ‘eligible’ for the quota, to initiate action against them. The irregularities that occurred years ago came out in the open after an investigation conducted following a complaint to the Karnataka Lokayukta by R. Mohan, a resident of Poojarkoplu in Holenarasipur taluk in November 2013. The Upalokayukta directed the Lokayukta police of Hassan to probe the recruitment of 17 teachers under this quota. The Lokayukta police sought detailed reports from the Education Department regarding their recruitment.

The teachers were recruited from 1997 to 2006 in different batches. Among them, 12 were recruited by the Hassan district-level recruitment committee, and the remaining in Dakshina Kannada and Tumkur districts. Interestingly, all the 17 were from the Holenarasipur taluk. Those recruited in other places took a transfer to Holenarasipur later.

V.M. Kantharaj, Deputy Director of Public Instruction, told

The Hindu , that a three-member expert committee, comprising doctors, was constituted to re-examine those facing charges. “The tests were conducted in April 2014. Among the 17, three were proved eligible and the committee referred two candidates for further examination at the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing in Mysore. The rest were all proved ineligible to claim jobs under this quota. Among the two, only one person has undergone the examination in Mysore, and another has not yet done it in Mysore,” he said.

The 12 teachers are Shanmukhaiah, Yogesh, G.S. Nagesh, D.C. Jagadish, G.P. Gurumurthy, Y.S. Nijalingappa, M.K. Rudrappa, K.R. Sujatha, N.P. Mamatha, D.A. Rajashekhar, H.A. Shanthappa and R. Chandrakala. C.R. Savithramma, also facing a similar allegation, is yet to undergo a medical test. All are working in different government schools in Holenarasipur taluk. “They were all recruited because the panel of medical experts constituted then gave them certificates of eligibility. We have submitted a detailed report to the Lokayukta on these developments,” said Mr. Kantharaj.