The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday asserted its victory as the allegations of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi VK Saxena regarding “ghost” guest teachers in Delhi fell flat on its face. The AAP asked him to apologise to the guest teachers of Delhi government schools for raising suspicion regarding their work. The LG had last year set up a committee to check the existence and the work of the guest teachers in the government schools of Delhi and the committee found everything to be as per protocol.
AAP Chief Spokesperson Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj said that in September 2022, the LG had raised suspicion regarding the working of over 16,000 guest teachers that are employed in the government schools of Delhi and claimed that the Delhi Government was running a major scam and this need to be investigated. His claim was that there are several teachers, whose names are in the list of the Delhi Government, but these teachers in reality do not teach in the government schools and therefore there is embezzlement of funds and this is a major scam that is being run by the Delhi Government. Shri VK Saxena eventually formed a committee to investigate this matter.
Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj said that over the next five months, this committee dropped all of their other responsibilities and began to investigate whether the 16,000 or so guest teachers working in the government schools of Delhi are real teachers or whether they are ‘ghost’ teachers as claimed by the LG. Eventually this committee went on to check the accounts of these teachers, their certificates and their attendance in the government schools of Delhi was also matched and it was found out that these teachers were indeed real. These teachers had a biometric online attendance system and they had been marking their attendance over there. More importantly, the principals of the schools and the children present in these government schools verified the authenticity of these teachers.
The Senior AAP Leader said that the allegations raised by the LG against the guest teachers was misleading as he tried to portray that these people did not exist and the Delhi Government was running a scam in the name of these teachers. He also said that it could be possible that the intention of the LG was to end the system of guest teachers in the government schools of Delhi, and therefore hinder the education process of the children. He pointed out that such an action from the LG Office is very unfortunate as he holds a constitutional post. He highlighted that the LG is not a political figure fighting against a party, but someone who is duty-bound to work for the citizens that he represents.
He also said that at the moment, the LG has been actively working against the constitutional duties that he is obliged to obey. The LG is interfering in all works of the Delhi Government and unnecessarily putting different departments of the government under the scanner for no apparent reason, as this incident highlights. He further pointed out that the LG has obstructed the works of the Delhi Government in several other departments such as electricity, healthcare, transport and PWD, and asked how a state government is supposed to work with such interference.
He went on to say that the only attempt of the LG in doing such things is to scare the government officers and obstruct the work of the Delhi Government. By setting up such committees to investigate departmental staff the LG is trying to instil a level of fear in every staff member and this will stop them from taking actions that are required for their job to be completed. He pointed out that such activities will only obstruct and delay the developmental works of the state government.
Pointing out that this is a big win for the AAP government in Delhi, Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj concluded by saying that the LG must once again issue a press release and reveal to the people that the committee that was set up has found the allegations of the LG to be untrue. He also said that the LG wasted the time of public officials and raised unnecessary doubts on the work of the guest teachers of Delhi, who are an integral part of the public education system of Delhi. “Since the LG holds a constitutional post and his duty is to work for the people of Delhi, it is his duty to come out and say that the committee found nothing on the allegations raised by him. He should come out and say that these teachers are not ‘ghosts’ as claimed by him earlier and that they are genuine teachers who work hard to give the students of Delhi a bright future,” he said.
