Ludhiana, April 30
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has welcomed the decision of the Punjab Government to cancel the recent selections made by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) for appointment to the Class I posts. It has demanded that the appointments of teachers made by the Department of Education last year should also be cancelled since those were allegedly made on extraneous conditions rather than being on merit.
In a signed statement released to the Press today, the convener of the kisan cell and member of the national economic cell of the party, Dr Balwant Singh, has alleged that the whole process of selection of teachers was vitiated by a highly objectionable and ridiculous criterion adopted by the department selection committee (teaching) for the selection of teachers. He said while the selection committee allotted 35 per cent marks each for BA, BSc and BEd examinations, respectively, it allotted a maximum of just 2 per cent marks for the first division in the master’s degree (MA / MSc ) and the remaining marks for personal interview.
Dr Balwant Singh has alleged that a high percentage of marks for personal interview was purposely set apart so that candidates with low merit could be accommodated by helping them generously in the interview award. It was for this reason alone, he alleged, that a large number of candidates, who had no academic merit worth the name, had been recommended for appointment by the selection committee.
The NCP activist added that Mr Tota Singh, the then Minister for Education, had gone on record to say that in future teachers in government schools would be appointed on the basis of their academic merit without any weightage for personal interview and past experience.
Dr Balwant Singh also questioned the propriety of the SAD-BJP government to fill a large number of teacher’s posts at the fag end of its term. Since the new government was expected to take over in just about two months, it should have been the prerogative of the new government to fill the vacancies of teachers.
He urged the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to order a high level inquiry into the whole affair of recruitment of teachers and take suitable action against all those who had indulged in corrupt practices. He further demanded that the selections made by the committee be declared null and void.
