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74 PCMC teachers slapped with show cause notice for ignoring Covid-19 duty

Hindustan Times, Pune | ByJigar Hindocha, Pune
Jul 08, 2020 04:20 PM IST

After the Covid-19 pandemic hit Pune, PCMC health department created a ‘Rapid Response Team’ to assist doctors and the healthcare workers

The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) issued show-cause notices to 74 teachers over the past four months for ignoring Covid-19 duties.

After the Covid-19 pandemic hit Pune, PCMC health department created a ‘Rapid Response Team’ to assist doctors and the healthcare workers. These teams included doctors and staff members from the health department and teachers from PCMC schools. However, many teachers submitted fake medical certificates to avail leave from work, according to PCMC officials.

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Duties of the team includes taking care of people at Covid care centres, door-to-door screening of residents, assisting hospitals performing Covid-19 duties and sending Whatsapp awareness messages to the public.

“Right now, we are serving show-cause notices and once we get a response from them, we will decide on the penalty. If they were truly not well, then, we will not take any action against them. Every month, we are issuing such notices to teachers who are absent from duty,” said Manoj Lonkar, assistant commissioner, F Zone.

Swati Shinde, a PCMC school teacher, who was served one of the notices, said,“I received the notice in May and I have not replied to them yet. My family was not willing to send me on Covid-19 duty and hence, I stopped going to work. The civic body should appoint other people for Covid-19 duty and not teachers. The civic body has sought the reason why I did not come on duty. Nothing else is specified in the show-cause notice.

Sharad Javedkar, vice-president, Akhil Bharatiya Samajwadi Shikshan Haq Sabha, said,“We are not in favour of any organisation or the civic body allocating non-teaching work to teachers. When elections are conducted, teachers are called for duty and when the Census is conducted, teachers are called for duty. Now, even for Covid-19 duties, teachers are being appointed. How will they continue with their school work, if they do all this? I do not support the submission of fake medical certificates, but teachers should only be doing teaching work.”

Rikibe Uja, Asha Maid, who has been on duty in Bhosari since the last three months, said,“PCMC teachers in Bhosari locality are doing their Covid-19 duty promptly. It is good to have them here as there is a shortage of people doing Covid-19 duty.”

The teachers who have received notices are generally sports teachers and school clerks, according to PCMC officials.

“With the rising coronavirus cases, I fear contracting the infection and hence, I was not doing the duty assigned to me by PCMC. I hope PCMC understands us,” said another teacher, requesting anonymity.

Notices served

Month- Number of teachers

March: 22

April: 11

May: 14

June: 27

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