Teacher transfer issue in Election Commission's court

Bengaluru: The transfer of about 88,000 additional and regular teachers of the state has reached the court of the Election Commission from the court of the state government. The question of whether the transfer process, which has been stalled for the last 4 months amid the activities of the election process, can take place this year is troubling the teaching profession.

In the background of the fact that the Commission had suggested that the transfer process should be carried out only after bringing it to its notice and because the Election Code of Conduct may be implemented at any moment, Ritesh Kumar Singh, the Principal Secretary of the School Education and Literacy Department, had written a letter to the Election Commission asking for permission to carry out the transfer process of the teachers.

But the commission has not announced its decision till Wednesday. Now that the code of conduct has been implemented, in view of the fact that the role of teachers is very important in the smooth running of the election process, it is curious whether the commission will allow such a large-scale transfer exercise. If permission is granted, the election and transfer process will go on simultaneously.

In 2019, the commission had given permission to carry out the transfer process even though the Code of Conduct for Lok Sabha Elections was in force. Even now, we are confident that the commission will allow the transfer process without disturbing the election process. We will also meet the officials of the commission and try to convince them, said Chandrasekhar Nuggali, secretary of the Primary Teachers Association.

Even if the code of conduct comes into force, transfer of additional and regular teachers should be allowed. Although the notification for the transfer process had already been issued, the process was stopped due to technical reasons. 88,324 teachers have applied for transfer. The school education department has tried to convince the commission that the competent authority has also given permission to continue the counseling and general transfer process of additional teachers.

Also, the school education department has given assurance to the commission that the transferred teachers will be given a condition to attend the appointed place after June 1 so that the election process will not be hindered.

The state government had initiated the transfer process of teachers in December 2022 itself. The schedule was announced to complete the transfer process by March. But after that this process was postponed twice due to reasons.