UP teacher ‘posted for DM work’ drew salary for 15 years without taking class

BAREILLY: A teacher at a primary school in Thikri village of Moradabad district has been drawing full salary since the past 15 years without going to school even once. In 2010, the then DM of Moradabad, Subhash Chandra Sharma, temporarily attached him to the DM camp office and since then he continued to stay put by citing that order.
The teacher, Tanveer Hasan Zaidi, 46, did not return even after the then director general of school education, Vijay Kiran Anand, issued a notification on June 29, 2022, cancelling all such postings and instructed such teachers to return to their respective schools.
Zaidi's matter came to light after he recently took long leaves due to some medical emergency. He was not available for his comment.
According to information received by RTI activist Abhishek Gaur recently, the teacher was neither a stenographer of the DM nor an employee at the collectorate though he claimed otherwise.
In response to the information sought by Gaur, block education officer of Moradabad Rural, Vegish Kumar, informed that Zaidi was appointed as an assistant teacher in 2005 at Thikri primary school on compassionate grounds.
Gaur said, "During elections or other busy programmes, some staff are attached to the DM office for 10-15 days. Once the work is completed, these employees return to their respective departments. For 15 years, there was no record of Zaidi with the basic education department, and there was no record of leaves taken by him during this period. Every month, his attendance was marked as present by the school and his salary was disbursed."
Moradabad divisional commissioner Aunjaneya Singh told TOI, "Sometimes, teachers are attached to the offices for administrative works but only for a short period. In this case, the period of attachment is too long. I have asked the district magistrate to look into this matter and take action."