Nagaland Pays 24 Crores Annually to Imaginary Teachers

Kohima, Mar 2 : Over Rs 24 crore is drained out annually from the Nagaland exchequer for paying salaries to 'bogus and physically unavailable' teachers, an investigation by the state vigilance commission has revealed.

Reports of the special investigation team (SIT) under the vigilance commission submitted to the government on February 26 has unearthed as many as 1,156 bogus teachers and 1,096 cases of appointments made under "doubtful circumstances".

Moreover, as many as 1,084 teachers were physically unavailable for verification, chief secretary Lalthara disclosed today quoting those reports.

Conservative estimates showed that the government has to pay over Rs 2 crore monthly to the combined strength of 1,156 bogus teachers and 1,084 physically unavailable teachers at the average rate of Rs 9,000 per month to each one of them, he said.

"So, the annual wastage was over Rs 24 crore." However, the SIT was unable to submit final and conclusive reports of its investigations in certain areas of the state, particularly those under the jurisdictions of the deputy inspectors of school (DIS) of Dimapur, Niuland and Longleng, due to the lack of adequate cooperation from the government employees working under these establishments (DIS), the chief secretary said.

Blaming undue interference from "outside elements" as one of the reasons for the inconclusive report, the Chief Secretary said investigations in these areas as well as other areas would continue to be operative till satisfactory results are obtained.

The SIT, constituted in March 2009, probed into alleged irregularities in teacher appointments in the Education Department during the period from 2002 to 2009.

The irregularities were detected in January last year when the budget allocation to the department, particularly on salary heads, was spent within January leaving nothing to pay for the remaining months of that year.

During the course of investigation, it was reported that the SIT members and some senior officials of the education department were intimidated by some underground activists and goons to discontinue the probe.

The government would soon set up a committee of senior officials under the chairmanship of Mhathung Kithan, Commissioner and Secretary (school education), to look into the reports, official sources said.