MLA Rasheed takes school into his own hands; suspended officer moves court

By Zishan Amiri

Srinagar, Mar 28: Four days after MLA Langate, Engineer Rasheed, made news for unlocking a “closed” school gate at Handwara, the Deputy Chief Education Officer (Dy CEO) concerned moved the High Court on Wednesday against his suspension.

The Dy CEO, Ghulam Ahmad Bhat, filed a writ petition through advocate Bhat Fayaz Ahmad.

“…The concerned MLA (Rasheed) in order to make political mileage, went to the spot, and broke up the locks, and made the school enter the school premises  giving a perception as if (there are) no teachers,” reads the petition.

“Besides that, petitioner is not in good books of said MLA. Just to create a problem for the petitioner (Bhat), (Rasheed) managed to show all these things were carried out in the social networking viz-a-viz newspapers.”

Er Rasheed, after finding that no teacher was on duty with around “50 students waiting” outside the school, broke open the main gate and started teaching the students himself.

Soon after, the Dy CEO was suspended for his “carelessness and negligence”.

Rasheed said that Dy CEO’s suspension was a decision of the administration taken without his interference.

Bhat said he became a victim of politics.

The suspension order mentions that Bhat also had “the additional charge of ZEO Langate”.

“I was holding the additional charge from December 2017 until March 3, 2018. Ideally, the Zonal Education Officer shall have been suspended. I was unnecessarily targeted,” Bhat told The Kashmir Monitor.

He said on March 3, the school was clubbed with the Primary School Kumar Mohalla Dardhaji to make up for the absence of teachers doing B Ed.

“Due to the teachers’ doing B Ed, the school was clubbed with the nearby school to help the students,” Bhat said. “I still do not understand the reason behind my suspension.”

The ZEO Rajgar,  Ghulam Mohidin Dar, however, claimed that after taking the charge, he had sent a “WhatsApp message to Bhat about the unavailability of teachers, but he did not bother to reply”.

“I couldn’t comment on his suspension, but all I know is that I had raised the issue. Now I have made the necessary arrangements and the school has resumed functioning,” he said.