Peerzada Ummer
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Aug 1: On July 29, Education Minister Naeem Akhtar Andrabi ordered attachment of Chief Education Officer (CEO) Srinagar and principal Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Kothi Bagh, Srinagar, with the Directorate of School Education, Kashmir.
On the record, the duo was punished after the Education Minister found the Kothi Bagh school untidy during his visit there. There's, however, a different story doing rounds in the Education Department about the attachment of the duo.
According to credible sources in the Education Department, Fatima Shaheen Tak, principal of the Kothi Bagh school, had openly revealed to the media that it was the Education Minister who had ordered her to collect donation from students for rebuilding flood-hit schools across the Kashmir Valley.
The story goes like this. On June 10, Fatima Tak directed students of her institution to give Rs 1000 as donation for the damaged schools. Many students had approached the media, alleging that the principal had threatened to issue discharge certificates to those students who fail to donate the said amount.
But when the principal was contacted by newspapers on that day, she publically named the Education Minister Naeem Akhtar, saying the donation had been sought on his orders only.
"The Education Minister has directed all institutions to collect Rs 1000 from students so that the flood-damaged schools would be renovated as soon as possible," Fatima Tak had said. "The Education Minister is eager to collect the funds. He keeps me asking about the progress."
The Education Minister's office has had denied issuing any order about collection of donation for the flood-hit schools. It said the Minister had "just made an appeal" to the students to contribute for the flood-damaged schools. "But the administration of these schools took it as a directive from the Education Minister," Shahnawaz Bukhari, a close aide of the Education Minister, said.
Sources however insisted that Fatima Tak was attached for 'exposing' the Education Minister who had given the verbal orders.
"Nearly two months after the issue settled down, the principal has been punished for going against the orders of the Education Minister," a senior official of the Education Department told Early Times, wishing not to be named.
"The Education Minister would have never imagined that the principal would reveal the orders, which were of course verbal, before the media. Undoubtedly, her attachment was a sort of punishment and a message to others. The message is loud and clear: don't try to be honest and follow the orders like dumb cattle," he said.
The Education Minister could not be reached for his comment.
Meanwhile, Romana Qazi, principal of Government Girls Higher Secondary School Amira Kadal, has been posted as principal of the Kothi Bagh school.
Qazi shall hold the additional charge of Amira Kadal school till further orders, an official handout said. |
