HC gives nod to fill up hill teacher slots

Calcutta, July 15: Calcutta High Court today gave its seal of approval to the decision taken by the Darjeeling school board to start again the process of filling up the vacancies of around 15,00 primary school teachers.

The board was also directed to send appointment letters to 120 candidates who had been chosen for the posts in 2002, but not given the placements.

During the hearing of a petition moved by a candidate Uday Chandra Rai, the board informed the court that the process of appointment of teachers had started again. "The candidates who were selected in 2002 have been asked to come to the board office and collect their appointment letters," the board counsel told Justice Biswanath Somadder.

Rai was among 120 candidates who had been chosen for jobs after exams and interviews, but not issued appointment letters.

The court also ordered the board to complete the recruitment process in four months as a large number of "primary schools were facing problem due to lack of adequate number of teachers".

The judge asked the board to publish advertisement in a largely circulated English newspaper and at least three local dailies, asking the 120 candidates to collect their appointment letters.

Bhushan Thapa, a member of the district school board since 2008, said he had no idea why the process to recruit primary school teachers had stopped midway.

"We are unaware why the appointments of the primary school teachers were stopped by the earlier dispensation (read GNLF). They probably had some politically vested interests in stalling the process," Thapa said in Darjeeling today.

He said some candidates had even been empanelled after conducting interviews. "But appointment letters have never been released. We were later told that five candidates had approached the court on the issue," said Thapa.

The Gorkha Primary Teachers' Organisation said 13 primary schools were functioning without full-fledged teachers in the Darjeeling hills and around 4000 posts were lying vacant.

"The recruitment has been stalled for the past 13 years. That is why we want 4000 teachers to be taken in. I think the 2002 interview was only for 120 vacancies," said a leader of the GPTO, affiliated to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

The GPTO had organised a series of strikes across the hills recently to press for the appointment of more teachers.