Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR Nov 16: The Zonal Education office in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district has been asked to vacate the education department-owned building, leaving the teachers and officials in a fix as they have no alternative place to operate from.
An official told Excelsior that the then Chief Executive Officer of Anantnag had asked them to move to a vacant building in the premises of Government Higher Secondary School Khanabal, a centrally located school with better access, after realizing that the office was operating from a risky rented facility.
“For more than 50 years, the office had been operating from a dilapidated, hazardous, and rented facility in the Kadipora area of the town. The office moved to the new buildings in March, and work has continued freely since then,” an official said.
He lamented how absurd it was that they were being ordered to leave the building that belonged to the Department of Education. “The building is owned by the Education Department because it was built as a resource centre for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), but the administration of Higher Secondary has asked us to vacate the property without a valid justification,” an official said.
The ZEO Anantnag, Suram Chan said he was surprised to receive an order from the Director of School Education’s office asking him “not to move into the Resource Center.”
“The building is within my zone, and we have no idea why such an order was issued. Since the earlier accommodation from which we used to conduct our operations was in disrepair and was a rented residence, we had nowhere else to work from,” he said.
However, he hopes that the decision would be reconsidered in light of the potential issues that could result from it. “We have written to the CEO about the issue but have not heard anything,” he said.
Last week, the Anantnag unit of the Jammu and Kashmir Teachers Forum met with the Chief Education Officer (CEO) and requested his help regarding recent events.
“Maintaining the ZEO office in its current location was the main concern on our agenda when we met with the CEO. We have given him representation, and we are hoping that common sense will prevail,” said Muzaffar Ahmad Dar, district president of the Teacher’s Forum.
According to many teachers who spoke with the Excelsior, the ZEO office’s current location is ideal considering its accessibility and level of security. “We have a large number of migrant teachers who felt uneasy approaching the Kadipora office. It is incomprehensible how such an order was passed without taking into account the broader circumstances. We can all simply approach this location safely,” a teacher said.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel