The Samajwadi Party Government was stopped at the last minute by the Election Commission (EC) from “effectively deploying” nearly 1.70 lakh of “Siksha Mitra” (auxiliary teachers) on polling duties on Friday.
In doing so, the EC reviewed its earlier order to allow the SP Government to use contract-teachers for the poll duty after BJP’s national convenor of Election Cell R Ramakrishna and BJP’s UP president laxmikant Vajpayee met the Commission on Thursday and brought “the contradiction” in EC’s approach to light.“We drew attention of the Commission to the contraction between its show cause notice to the SP on its alleged threat to teachers to vote for his party and allowing its State Government to deploy these very teachers for the poll duties”, Ramakrishna told The Pioneer.
Ramakrishna said in about 35 minutes exchange of views the Commission was for once stumped and understood the point well and soon after passing an order barring the State Government from deploying the teachers for election purposes. Asked whether the EC order could have effectively stopped teachers from “playing a role” in the polling stations, he said “well, deployment could have already been done by the government but EC did give orders to stop it”.
The EC on last Friday had issued a show-cause notice to SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav for allegedly threatening teachers to vote for his party. Mulayam had threatened the contractual government teachers in Bulandshahr saying that everyone should vote for SP to become a permanent government teacher.“Mind my words, the Government will cancel the proposal to promote you people (Shiksha Mitra) to permanent teacher’s scale, if you do not vote for the SP in this election. Not only you, but your family members and friends should also vote for the SP. Nothing comes for free now. If the SP Government is working for your benefit, it is your responsibility to ensure the victory of SP in the election,” Yadav had reportedly said during an election rally.
Earlier in the year, UP cabinet had cleared the proposal to regualrise over 1.70 lakh ‘shiksha mitras’ (auxiliary teachers) in the basic education department. These “teachers” with “little education” have been employed by the Government to teach on meager remunerations. The Commission has, however, not stopped the Central government from appointing teachers in ‘Kendriya Vidyalayas’, a demand also made by the BJP citing the prevailing Model Code of Conduct .It is understood that the EC thought nothing incorrect in allowing appointments “particularly when it is to clear a back log of last two years and all procedures are being adhered to...”, sources said.
