Chandigarh: Education board assigns unskilled staff for book stock tally

Mohali: In a major goof up, the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has assigned the task of verifying the dead stock of books — a specialized job — to class IV employees while it is meant for staff of clerical level and above.

Now, the board officials are in a tizzy and have approached the higher authorities for relief.

Sources said the orders were issued through a circular asking class IV employees to physically verify the book stock at various depots, including retail shops, across the state.

The anomaly came to light when Jaspal Singh, a packer, was assigned the duty of checking the record of existing and dead book stock in Faridkot. Notably, a packer falls under the class IV category and is not skilled to carry out a specialized job of checking book stocks.

PSEB had issued a notification assigning ‘specialized’ duties to clerks, junior assistants, senior assistants for carrying out the verification of stocks and acting as signing authorities, yet it gave the task to class IV employees.

A member of PSEB employees’ union said, “It was wrong on the part of PSEB to assign the duty to a class IV employee who is incapable to performing the same. The employee came crying to us and we have lodged a complaint with the higher authorities to amend the orders.”

On the other hand, PSEB deputy secretary Manmeet Singh Bhattal said, “We have also detected the anomaly in the orders, which have been notified to the secretary seeking rectification. Fresh orders will be issued by November 18.”

The packers have been assigned duties under clerks/ junior assistants/ senior assistants at 7 of the total 21 depots where the verification is to be conducted.