Nagpur.
Beware of teachers. The next time you voluntarily agree to perform census duties for update of National Population Register (NPR) and later on falter or hesitate to do it, it could cost you dear. The Depuy Resident Collector has issued a directive that once the responsibilities for performing duties for NPR are designated the teachers refusing to do it or not completing the job within stipulated period, would face an FIR. The NPR programme for Nagpur District was announced on October 10. The last date for completing the work was November 9. But with the shabby attitude of teachers, the all important work could not be completed on time.
In this backdrop, the Deputy Resident Collector Ravindra Kumbhare on Tuesday held a meeting with the officials of Nagpur Municipal Corporation and the last date for completing the NPR work was extended to November 30. The Deputy Resident Collector directed to lodge FIRs against those teachers who fail to perform their assigned duties or hesitate to do it. Till date, the work of NPR update is carried out with coordination between the teachers and the Administration. However, this time, the teachers refused to do the NPR duties by forwarding a High Court directive that said the teachers should do only the job of teaching. On the other hand, the Administration is sticking to the Supreme Court order that said the help of teachers could be taken in the census work. A total of 9041 groups have been set up on the basis of population in the district for carrying of the NPR update work. Of the 9041 groups, the city has 4434 groups. Fifty percent of work in rural areas has been completed.
The Right to Education Act, 2009 allows teachers to be engaged in non-educational work for only elections, census and disaster management. Recently, the state education department had issued a letter clarifying that the work of updating NPR database is a part of Census and hence the teachers are to be engaged for this work. Various teachers’ group in the state had filed petitions in the High Court and staged protests.
