District administration seeks exemption for high school teachers from BLO duty

Citing Class 10 examination preparation, Dakshina Kannada district administration has sought Election Commission to exempt high school teachers from duty as booth level officers, said Additional Deputy Commissioner K. Raju in Mangaluru on Friday.

Speaking during the grievance redressal meeting of teachers from schools and PU colleges of the district that was chaired by MLCs S.L.Bhoje Gowda and Dhananjaya Sarji, Mr. Raju said earlier, Anganwadi teachers were being put as BLO. But now, Election Commission has sought government teachers for the BLO duty.

“We have sought exemption for high school teachers from BLO duty. We have exempted teachers, who have cited medical reason, and replaced them with other teachers. We are expecting revised list of BLOs, hoping that the Election Commission will accept our demand,” Mr. Raju said.

Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Narwade Vinayak Karbhari said while suggesting names of teachers, care has been taken to leave out subject teachers.

A representative of Government Drawing Teachers Association said with absence of necessary teachers, the drawing teachers were supplementing in teaching subjects in several primary and government high schools. Taking drawing teachers to BLOs will affect studies of students, more so in preparing Class 10 students for SSLC examination in March.

A representative of management of an aided school said in absence of adequate number of teachers, the school was facing problem in deputing one subject teacher for the BLO work.

Agreeing with the problem of teachers, MLC Mr. Gowda said education and health were priority sectors and Government should ensure that teachers and healthcare workers were exempted from the election duty.

Health insurance

When a government teacher expressed difficulty in getting necessary treatment from private hospitals empanelled under the Jyothi Sanjeevini Scheme, MLC Mr. Sarji said in October last year, the Central Government revised Central Government Health Scheme rates for different health procedures. Similar revision of rates was expected to be made by State Government shortly. Then, teachers will get necessary health services from the empanelled hospitals, he said.

A pre-university college lecturer pointed that the Government was not notifying vacancy of lecturer posts in Government PU Colleges where the number of students was 40 and below. A. Vittala, principal of a PU college in Mangaluru, said such a rule will deny quality teaching for students studying from poor background in those colleges.