Teachers won't be deployed for poll duties in J-K: Minister

The Jammu and Kashmir government will not deploy teachers for election duties in bypolls to the two Lok Sabha constituencies in Kashmir and the forthcoming local bodies polls in the state.
"Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has instructed that the state government will not deploy teachers as booth level officers during elections in Kashmir Valley," Education Minister Syed Altaf Bukhari said here today.
He said the instruction has been passed on to Divisional Commissioners in both Kashmir and Jammu regions.
"Teachers will have only one job to do. It will 100 per cent academic duty," the education minister said.
Bukhari, who took over as the state education minister earlier this month, has taken several major decisions aimed at reforming and restructuring the department.

"In municipal and panchayat polls, which will follow, the system of using teachers and education fraternity for election duties will end," he said.

Till the last elections in the state, most of the poll staff were drawn from the education department.
"The education department has decided to end the practice of using teachers for various purposes. The Chief Minister has been gracious to accept this proposal by the department," he said.
The education department will also not allow teachers to be used as supervisors of school building constructions or for accounting jobs, Bukhari said.
The education department is setting up an engineering wing construction of school buildings and other facilities. The department will also hire accountants and financial consultants to prepare accounts of schools and colleges, he said.

"The aim of such moves is to restore the honour and dignity of teachers whose only task is teaching," the minister said, adding pending salaries of the Rehbar-e-Taleem and other teachers will be cleared by April 30.