Punjab: Nearly 41 per cent of the Block Primary Education Officer (BPEO) posts are lying vacant in the state, with Education Minister Harjot Bains’ home district Ropar being the worst affected with nearly 90 per cent posts vacant. BPEOs play a key role in the functioning of primary schools and each of them looks after more than 50 schools. Sukhwinder Singh Chahal, president of the Government Teachers Association, said distribution of books, grants and functioning of educational schemes have been affected due to the lack of BEPOs. He said 93 posts are currently vacant in the state’s 228 education blocks. Besides, many BPEOs have also been given additional charge of other blocks. Chahal said the Education Minister’s home district is the worst affected with 90 per cent posts vacant as nine out of 10 posts are vacant there.
He said six out of seven posts are vacant in Bathinda, while 16 out of 21 posts in Hoshiarpur are yet to be filled. He said that in Sangrur, the home district of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, three out of nine posts are vacant. Chahal demanded that 75 per cent of the total posts should be filled through promotion and the rest through direct recruitment. He said that the government should reverse the 2018 rules, which required 50 per cent of the posts to be filled through direct recruitment. In Kapurthala, six out of nine posts are vacant, while in Amritsar, 10 posts are vacant against 15 posts. There are three BPEO posts in Malerkotla, out of which two are vacant, while in Mansa, three out of five posts are vacant. In Nawanshahr, four out of seven posts are lying vacant. Reacting to this, a senior government official cited the ban on direct recruitment by the Punjab and Haryana High Court as the reason behind this.
