Bihar education department suspends a teacher who died two years ago

Grave offence

The Bihar education department has suspended a teacher for dereliction of duty. This is nothing new, but the fact that the teacher, Ranjeet Kumar Yadav, died two years ago is. An order from Begusarai district education officer's office, dated February 28, suspending absentee teachers included the name of Yadav who was supposed to check intermediate students' answer sheets at a centre in Begusarai, but did not turn up. Here's what happened in the interim. From February 17, contractual teachers in the state went on a strike demanding permanent posts. After there were reports that some teachers who tried to reach the designated centres to check answer sheets were beaten up by the protesters, many teachers stayed away. The state's education board took congnisance of the episode and ordered an investigation. It also issued an order suspending teachers who refused to check the answer sheets.

 

Promises first

With the Bihar Assembly polls scheduled for October, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP's) allies in the state have started flexing their muscles for a better seat-sharing deal. The Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will release its vision document for the polls, six months in advance during its "Bihar first Bihari first" rally on April 14 in Patna. Not only this, the LJP on Tuesday also asked the other political parties to release their manifestos for the polls much in advance so that the elections are fought on development agenda and not the issue of "Hindu-Musalman" or castes. LJP president Chirag Paswan said, "We all saw what happened in the Delhi polls", a reference to the issue of polarisation that dominated the Assembly election in the national capital. Asked if his remarks were aimed at the BJP, which was accused by rival parties of pushing "communal" issues into the Delhi campaign, Paswan junior answered in negative. Asked about Prashant Kishor's attack on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over development issues, Paswan junior said while they had differences, he welcomed anybody who spoke about the state's progress.

 

‘Accept free money’

A horse-trading drama has taken the ce­ntre stage in Madhya Pradesh. On Mon­day, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh once again accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to lure his party MLAs with cash. When journalists sought CM Kamal Nath’s comment, he said, "Vidhayak hi keh rahe hain mujhe... hume itna paisa diya jaa raha hai. Main toh vidhayakon ko keh raha hoon ki phokat ka paisa mil raha hai, le lena. (MLAs themselves are telling me they are being offered money. I told them to accept the free money.)” Nath added he failed to understand from where the state's largest Opposition party was getting the money. Earlier, Singh had alleged that around seven MLAs had received calls from the BJP leaders with offers of huge sums of money. He had added his partymen had been offered Rs 5 crore as first instalment and more after the Rajya Sabha elections.