JOIN USDisconnection of mobile sim cards provided by the Department of Education to headmasters of more than 5,000 schools has created major confusion and chaos.
The sim cards were distributed to high school headmasters so that they could be in constant touch with the department officials. The department had deducted Rs 1,050 from salaries of each headmaster, as sim card charges for the year. With the sim cards going dead from April, the status of the remaining Rs 750 (totalling Rs 37.50 lakh), which had already been deducted, is being questioned by the teachers.
The officials of the department of Education has to be in contact with the headmasters to know about the new educational projects, admission, examination, meetings and others.
Keeping this in mind, the department had distributed sim cards to the headmasters under National higher primary educational scheme in the month of January and had even deducted an average of Rs 1,050 from each of them for the sim card.
The headmasters were told at the time of distribution that the amount was calculated at Rs 150 per month. The headmasters who already had a phone had to purchase another cellphone to accommodate the sim, spending thousands of rupees.
The department officials used to instruct, gather details on the progress of the school and various meetings through the phones, aside from sending bulk SMSes. However, the sim cards abruptly got disconnected. Some of the teachers who contacted BSNL officials regarding the issue, came to know that the department had not remitted the bills, following which the services were disconnected.