Rajouri, Sep 7: A victim of favouritism, the graduate son of a blind beggar, Tufail Hussain is forced to sit beside his father to seek alms after his only hope of being selected as a Rehbar-e-Taleem teacher was dashed when a less qualified candidate was allegedly preferred over him. 
 Tufail, who has done B.A and B.Ed, never allowed poverty to become an impediment in his pursuit for education. But today, he is disappointed as all his hopes to extend a helping hand to his poor family have been shattered. Courtesy: the “favouritism” in the selection process.   
 Officials at the helm dropped him and allegedly preferred the other candidate—only a graduate but with political and bureaucratic backing—for the post of ReT teacher in a local school in Peeri village of this border town.
 Hit by “injustice”, Tufail is now begging on the streets, just beside his aged blind father, who had the cherished dream to see his son succeed in life.
 Tufail's father Muhammad Fakeer is blind by both eyes and begs on the main bridge of Gujjar Mandi area of Rajouri town for past 10 years.
 Having utilized all the money in Tufail’s education, Fakeer is disappointment with the way things happen in the government.
 Surprisingly, Tufail is also pursuing Masters in Persian and the only income for the family comes from the begging by Fakeer, who has educated all his six children, including the eldest one Tufail.  
 Talking to Greater Kashmir, he said: “In January a notification was issued by the Education Department inviting applications for Rehbar- e-Taleem teacher in Peeri school and Tufail applied for the same. The Department issued another notification but he was not allowed to apply for second time as the officials said his previous application will be considered. But to our utter shock, he did not figure in the final selection list. Instead a less-qualified candidate was picked up selected.”
 Tufail said: “I wanted to extend a helping hand to my father who, for the sake of my education, has been begging on the bridge day and night, braving all types of climatic vagaries.” 
 He alleged that clerical staff of Zonal Education Office Peeri was responsible for the injustice and one of the officials even threatened him of dire consequences if he raised his voice against the selection.  
 Tufail, however, has the last hope: the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. “If our chief minister is talking about fair selections, he must do justice.”

Lastupdate on : Fri, 7 Sep 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 7 Sep 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 8 Sep 2012 00:00:00 IST