Government teachers are not only earning twice as much salary as private school teachers but enjoying special privileges like going on leave for two years without any permission. A government school teacher posted at Government School Vijay Nagar did not show up for duty for 2 years in 2007 and even after that continued to vanish for long leaves without taking any permission from the department.
After 13 years of investigation, the teacher named Sonali Gupta has finally been served justice with ‘Removal of Service’ orders. As shared by Joint Director (Indore) school education department Manish Verma, “The case proceedings were long, but this is an example for all those teachers who feel they can escape and continue to take undue advantage of government.”
As per the investigation report, the case against Sonali for not showing up at the school was registered on November 26, 2007. Prior to that, she had taken permission in 2003 for leaves.
Investigation officer Vijaya Sharma had continued to enquire and investigate the case seeking explanation from Sonali on her leaves. Showing up for hearings, Sonali justified her leaves as medical emergencies.
“The emergency medical leaves were supported with medical certificates from a government medical officer serving in civil dispensary in Juni Indore,” Verma said. However, the medical certificates advising leave of 6 months at a time were finally ruled out to be invalid.
“There are two conditions, one, the government medical officer does not have the authority to give medical certificate of 6 months leave to a government official; and the second, these leaves were not supported with regular medicine receipts, update visits and health check-up proofs,” Verma said.
Furthermore, the investigation giving benefit of doubt to Sonali was taken ahead to check records of the dispensary. “The patient was not registered or found anywhere in the records of the dispensary as shared by the civil surgeon,” Verma said.
Finally, after 13 years of investigation, Sonali was terminated with ‘Removal from Service’ orders.