Bhiwandi: The municipal commissioner has sent out notices to corporators who have alleged corruption and malpractice in the transfer of Urdu school teachers from Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC). The notice seeks explanation and evidence to carry out an inquiry.
On August 27, the issue of malpractice and corruption over transfer of teachers was raised in the standing committee meeting by Congress corporators and standing committee members including Arun Raut, Prashant Lad and Halim Ansari. The corporators alleged that more than 20 teachers have been transferred in the last two years, while in the first week of August, around 9 teachers were transferred, which was against the law and protocol.
Arun Raut, a Congress corporator from BNCMC, who raised the issue had confirmed about receiving a notice and said, "The authorities claim we have defamed them by raising the issue and seek for explanation. We only raised our concerns over the transfer, which was made against the law and without following the protocol. We opposed the transfer and asked for an inquiry into it. We will reply to them with all the evidence, which we have sought through the Right to Information Act from the authorities themselves," he added Raut.
Sudhakar Deskmukh, the municipal Commissioner, confirmed that the civic body recently sent a written notice to the corporators who had raise questions and allegations regarding the transfers. "We have asked them to submit evidence and proof so that we can carry out an inquiry regarding the same," he added.
The BNCMC, till date, has 48 municipal primary Urdu schools under its jurisdiction. On January 8, 2019, a survey, carried out by the authorities, found that 17,135 students studying in the school. "On September 2018, BS. Mohite, administrative officer, sent a report to the municipal commissioner requesting transfer of 105 teachers. In the proposal, he also mentioned the shortage of 100 teachers. In October 2019, a resolution was passed in the general body meeting which stated that transfer of teachers will not be considered till they are sanctioned from the government's Pavitra portal app," said Danish Azmi, vice president of Swadheen Sanstha, who is fighting to save the Urdu school culture.
As per the data provided by the municipal authorities, the BNCMC had 496 school teachers of which 44 have been promoted to the position of headmaster. Around three are dead, four have retired, two are absent for years and more than 20 have been transferred in the last two years.
In August 2021 around 9 were transferred. Presently there are 464 rooms, but we just have around 420 teachers to manage it. The corporators said that this was the first time in the history of Bhiwandi, where notices were sent seeking explanation for raising questions in the standing committee for the betterment of the society.
But Vijay Shirsath, headmaster of Naigaon municipal school who is also handling the charge of Administrative officer of BNCMC, clarified that proper protocol was followed for the transfer of the nine teachers in the first week of August. "Four of them were transfer following rules in the husband-wife category. Four had approval from the Pune and Mumbai education department and one of them was handicapped. It was done completely following the procedure," he added.
