The State Election Commission (SEC) in Bihar has turned down the request of education department for permission to carry on with the process for sixth phase of recruitment of school teachers, citing the ongoing panchayat elections, officials said.

“The district advisory committee (for recruitment of teachers for government schools) has a member from the district council. It has been clear laid down in the model code of conduct guidelines that there would be an embargo on implementation of any scheme of the state government or the Centre which involves any representative of the panchayati raj institutions either directly or indirectly,” said a letter from the deputy secretary, SEC, to the director, secondary education.

Panchayat polls in Bihar, being held in 11 phases, end on December 12.

Education minister Vijay Choudhary said the government was keen on completing the sixth phase of teachers’ recruitment at the earliest, which is why it had sought permission from the SEC. The department had also initiated the exercise for verification of documents of shortlisted candidates, but it had to be stopped midway due to panchayat elections.

Reacting to unrest among candidates because of the delay, the minister said, “I appeal to the candidates to understand the situation and not get misled. Panchayati raj institutions are the appointing authority for teachers in schools. As soon as the sixth phase is completed, the seventh phase will start,” he said.

Additional chief secretary (education) Sanjay Kumar said, “So far, two rounds of counselling for around 38,000 candidates out of the total 94,000 vacancies have been completed, while either first or second round of counselling is due in 1,200 recruiting units at the panchayat level. After the second round of counselling is completed in all the recruiting units, the department will take a call whether it should go in for third counselling or not.”

Kumar said the seventh phase of recruitment would commence soon after the sixth and would also add the carry forward the vacancies from the sixth. “There will be enough vacancies even in the seventh phase, as there is shortage of teachers. But the department wants the deserving ones to get the jobs. Verification of documents is also a cumbersome process, but it has to be completed beforehand to prevent any kind of forgery,” he said.

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