Bihar Governor asks Chief Secretary to cancel 'harsh decisions' taken by ACS, Education Pathak

Patna: Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has asked the Chief Secretary to take action against Additional Chief Secretary, Education, K.K. Pathak over his "harsh decisions" relating to operations of schools and universities.

Such decisions are detrimental and damaging the educational structure of the state, he said, as per a letter written by Principal Secretary to the Governor Robert L. Chongthu to Chief Secretary Amir Subhani.

The Governor's move came after a delegation of 15 MLCs of all parties of Bihar met him on December 19 and handed over a memorandum accusing Pathak of "taking some harsh decisions which are detrimental and damaging to the educational structure".

They also requested him to immediately remove Pathak immediately from the post of Additional Chief Secretary, Education.

As per the complaint, Pathak has directed teachers of schools to stay from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on working days, adding such a measure is not applied anywhere in the country.

Besides, Pathak also directed the teaching faculties of colleges to take five classes every day and the delegation said that this is also not possible practically.

The MLCs also claimed they owned special privilege under Article 194 of the Constitution but the official is breaching it as well.

As per the letter, the Governor found that the claims of MLCs are true and hence he has asked the Chief Secretary to cancel the decisions which are harsh and breach the laws.

Among complainants were MLC and retired professor Sanjay Kumar Singh of CPI whose pension was stopped, Dr Sanjiv Singh, Rekha Kumari, and Prof Virendra Narayan Yadav of the JD-U, Dr Madan Mohan Jha, Samir Kumar Singh, and Prem Chand Mishra of the Congress, Ajay Kumar Singh, Kumar Nagendra, and Dr Ram Bali Singh of the RJD, Sarvesh Kumar Singh, Dr Sanjay Paswan, and Dr Sacchidanand Rai of BJP, Afaq Ahmed of Jan Suraj, and Independent member Maheshwar Singh.