Bihar: Edu dept locks horns with BPSC

A day after Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) hit back at the education department, making it clear that the commission is not under the department and any interference with its activities is “unconstitutional, unwarranted and unacceptable”, the latter has retorted with an equally harsh letter, saying that “autonomy does not mean anarchy and the commission could not be allowed to drift from established procedures”.

The education department, through a letter signed by secondary education director Kanhaiya Prasad Srivastava, responded Friday evening to the BPSC secretary after the latter’s letter became public. He has written that after the intervention of the chief secretary in the matter, clarification on the issues raised and necessary directions to the district magistrates with regard to document verification for teachers’ recruitment, the letter from the BPSC secretary “is unnecessary and childish action”. “Therefore, the letter is returned in original to you,” Srivastava has written in his letter, which has been seen by HT.

This is the first time that top bureaucrats have been involved in a letter war in public. While KK Pathak is the additional chief secretary of the education department, Atul Prasad is the chairman of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC). Due to the continuing spat, chief secretary Amir Subhani also had to intervene, but to no avail. A senior official of the BPSC said the matter is being escalated and it is for the government to take a view to settle it.

“The department is aware and it is an established fact that the BPSC is free to discharge its responsibilities, but it is also equally important that the commission does not do anything in contravention of the provisions laid down under the Bihar state teachers (recruitment, transfer, disciplinary action and service condition) rules, 2023 to unnecessarily create reasons for judicial cases in future. The burden of the court cases falls on the department,” said the letter.

Citing relevant sections of the rules, the director has written that their compliance is important. “Still, there is no point wasting energy in unnecessary correspondence using unwarranted words. It is better to proceed as per the laid down provisions so that there is no litigation in future and exercise in timely completed,” the director wrote.

Referring to the BPSC secretary’s letter that the commission was not under department, he has further written that in case of any deviation from established practices, the commission could have held a meeting at its own level to discuss the issues with the departments of education, law and general administration.

“The autonomy of the commission does not give licence to start a foolish and senseless tradition, which could create a legal challenge before the government in future. The BPSC should make it clear when in the past it had gone in for document verification without publishing the results of the written examination. It has been mentioned in the rules that there should be discussion on the different aspects of exam with the administrative department,” Srivastava has said in the letter regarding the examination recently held by the BPSC for teachers’ recruitment.

Following the spat, chief secretary Subhani had to intervene and write to all the district magistrates not to deploy education department officials for the verification of documents related to teachers’ recruitment by the BPSC and instead rope in officials from other departments.

“At present, the education department is carrying out a statewide driver to strengthen the government school system and daily monitoring, in which all the officials and teachers are engaged. Therefore, the education department officials and teachers need to be kept away from the work of verification and scanning of OMR answer-sheets so that they could remain engaged with education,” said the letter from the chief secretary to all the DMs.

However, a day later, the BPSC responded, maintaining that document verification is done in two phases — one at the level of commission prior to recommendation and another at the level of recruitment agency at the time of joining — and both have their relevance and both complement each other.

“If it is not clear to you, study the relevant articles of the Constitution. This should be clear that raising a question mark over the propriety of any internal process of the commission or attempts to put pressure is unconstitutional, unwarranted and unacceptable. It is surprising how the department, despite being aware, expects the commission to make recommendations without document verification,” said the BPSC secretary Ravi Bhushan in a reply to director, secondary education.

“Which officer from which department is to be deployed is the prerogative of the government. If there is any objection or request should be made to the state government,” he has written.

BPSC chairman Atul Prasad had also expressed his displeasure with a tweet Friday morning, though he did not address any individual or department.

“Govt deputes its officers and changes later. It doesn’t concern us at all. But on this pretext, elements who tried to get our teachers recruitment — document verification cancelled should try harder,” he had tweeted.