BIHAR EDUCATION MINISTER ORDERS STRICT ACTION AGAINST CORRUPTION

BIHAR EDUCATION MINISTER ORDERS STRICT ACTION AGAINST CORRUPTION

21-OCT-ENG 3

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

PATNA-------------------------Bihar Education Minister Mithilesh Tiwari has announced strong measures against corruption in the state’s Education Department, particularly the practice of demanding money from teachers in District Education Officer (DO) and District Programme Officer (DPO) offices.

Addressing the issue publicly, the minister said complaints had reached him, including from a Rajya Sabha MP, that teachers were being exploited and asked for bribes in these offices. He declared that employees involved in such practices—regardless of their rank—would face swift action that they would remember for a lifetime.

Tiwari revealed a major administrative decision: the cadre of certain clerical and related staff has been restructured into a straight cadre. This means officials found engaging in wrongdoing in one district (for example, Bhagalpur) can be posted directly elsewhere and will have no option to continue in the same place under the old system of frequent inter-district transfers.

He emphasised that action in the Education Department is taken within minutes, not hours. Referring to recent salary-related scams, he said FIRs were registered, arrests made, and investigations ordered after direct instructions to District Magistrates. The minister stressed the goal of making the Education Department function like a “temple of education,” continuing the reforms initiated under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Additional points covered included efforts to ensure timely Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of teachers’ salaries, policy work on physical education instructors and full-time status for certain categories of teachers, revival of Sanskrit education through Gurukul Vidyapeeth (starting in Buxar), and assessment of the 7th pay scale demand for teachers. Tiwari reiterated that the government is working to meet legitimate demands of teachers while rooting out corruption.