Tehsildar’s arrest warrant against school principal kicks off row

Baramulla, June 25: A controversy erupted after the Executive Magistrate Dangerpora in Sopore issued an arrest warrant against Principal Government Higher Secondary School (GHSS), Dangerpora.

The controversy erupted after the principal of the school refused to relieve a teacher for his deputation in the Tehsil office to take some non-teaching assignment.

   

“The concerned Tehsildar had issued an order for deputation of some employees in the Tehsil office which included my teacher as well. The order was issued without taking consent from the Chief Education Officer (CEO),” Principal GHSS Dangerpora Mustafa Bhat told Greater Kashmir.

Bhat said he took up the matter with CEO Baramulla and was instructed not to relieve the teacher.

“My problem was that this teacher teaches computer science to around 150 students, maintains UDISE data, and also maintains the registration of students. So his working hours are more than six hours,” he said.

The principal said the school was already facing a dearth of teaching staff.

“We don’t have another teacher available who would teach the subject to these 150 students,” he said.

As the teacher was not relieved, the school principal received an arrest warrant from the concerned tehsildar, leaving the principal and other staff members aghast.

As the news about the arrest warrant of the principal spread on Friday, the teaching community expressed anguish and demanded action against the executive magistrate.

“When I reached the tehsil office, I was humiliated by the concerned tehsildar as I had missed his call,” the principal said.

On Saturday, the concerned principal decided to go on a protest leave, but the district administration intervened in the matter to resolve the issue amicably.

“I was called by ADC Baramulla and was assured that no such incident will take place in future and was also told that the teacher will not be relieved,” the principal said.

Meanwhile, Executive Magistrate Dangerpora, Asif Ahmad Malik told Greater Kashmir that he had no personal issues with the concerned principal but said that he did not “respect the magistrate of the area”.

“I, being the magistrate, asked the principals of seven schools to provide some teachers for the digitisation of Jamabandi which is a project of the J&K government,” Malik said.

“Some principals communicated to me that they do not have adequate staff and I asked other schools to provide the staff. But principal GHSS Dangerpora did not bother to communicate his issue in relieving the staff,” he said.

Malik said that the issue would have been resolved had the principal communicated to him about the dearth of staff.

“I even called him twice or thrice but he did not respond to my calls and did not even bother to call back,” he said.

Malik said, on Friday, he asked the concerned ZEO to communicate with the concerned principal to visit the tehsil office.

“But he did agree to visit the office of the concerned magistrate which forced me to involve the Police,” he said. “Even the Police earlier conveyed the principal to report to tehsil office but he did not visit here. Later, a warrant was issued against him for not following the protocol.”

Talking to Greater Kashmir, CEO Baramulla G M Lone said that the issue was resolved with the intervention of the district administration.

“Whatever the allegations were, the issue stands resolved now,” he said.

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