Tarun Gagoi orders Transfer policy for women school teachers in Assam

After concerns were expressed for safety of women teachers posted in remote areas and gang rape of one of them at Dalgaon in Darrang district, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has directed that a transfer and posting policy be formulated for them.

The chief minister asked Chief Secretary Jitesh Khosla to constitute a three-member committee to formulate policy for safety of women teachers besides congenial working conditions for them, official sources said.

The committee would be headed by P P Varma, Adviser to Chief Minister, Commissioner and Secretary Elementary Education Hemanta Narzary and Deputy Director Elementary Education Asomi Gogoi, said official sources here.

The committee would submit its recommendations within a month, sources said. A 21-year old teacher who had qualified for the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) and was recently appointed by the state government, was raped allegedly by four persons at a tea garden when she was returning home from school on October two.

Three of the accused have been arrested with two of them being identified as 33-year-old Muslimuddin and 27-year-old Joynal, both workers at the Chikonmati Tea Estate.

After being short listed for appointment, TET women teachers were posted within 8 km of their residence, a memorandum by the Udalguri district unit of the Assam State Primary Teachers' Association said.

But after confirmation they and their male colleagues were posted through lottery at places which were over 60 to 70 km, often inaccessible areas, from their homes, it added.

PTI