Edu officials fail to make it to midnight meet at CM’s ancestral village, suspended

ALMORA: Failure to turn up at a midnight meeting held by chief minister Harish Rawat at his ancestral village Mohanari in Almora district led to the chief district education officer along with four other education officers being suspended by the district magistrate.
CM Rawat ordered the Almora district magistrate to suspend five education officials, including the chief education officer, because of the absence of the entire education department at a janata durbar held by the CM in Mohanari village near Chaunalia.
The chief minister held a janata durbar on Saturday night at his ancestral village in Bhikiyasain block, where he heard several problems faced by the villagers, including water, road, electricity, irrigation, farming and van panchayat. He reviewed the progress of different government schemes that are working in the panchayat. Top officials from all departments were present at the janata durbar.
However, when the chief minister began to review schools in the village, villagers started complaining about the sorry state of education there. On finding that none of the education officers was present at the janata durbar, he immediately instructed the district magistrate to take action against them, and immediately suspend chief education officer BN Singh, district education officer (basic) Rai Saheb, district education officer (Madhyamik) HD Chandra, block education officer of Bhikiyasain, SS Dohere, and block education officer of Tarikhet.
Almora DM Savin Bansal told TOI, “All the education officers were sent advanced intimation for being present at the janata durbar on Saturday night. Nevertheless, the entire department remained absent. So we have sent the recommendation for suspension of five educational officers, including the chief education officer, to the government as per the instructions of the chief minister.”
Reacting to the CM’s order, chief education officer BN Singh said, “I was on an approved leave from October 14 to October 25 and out of station. The leave was pre-sanctioned from Dehradun. The in-charge during this time was HD Chandra, who too was travelling at that time. So, I asked the district education officer (basic) to attend the event. It’s important to attend the event when the CM is present. However, he said he was suffering from typhoid and hence, could not attend the event. Unfortunately, none of the officers from the department turned up at the event. I have given my explanation in my report to the DM. I will wait for the government’s response.”