Legislators in Madhya Pradesh deputing teachers as their personal staff (Representational image)
The General Administration Department told the names of 10 legislators to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, who have deployed teachers as their personal staff.
They also said that many more legislators are demanding that teachers be made their personal staff.
In the list of 10 legislators, nine lawmakers belong to Congress and one is from BJP.
Congress lawmaker Phundelal Marko has added his wife, Premwati Singh Marko, in his personal staff team. His wife is a government school teacher.
Similarly, Congress legislator Vijay Raghavendra Singh has included his relative as his staff, who is a teacher too.
The Right to Education Act 2009 prohibits teachers from being deputed for non-teaching jobs.
"As far I know, this order was not passed by Kamal Nath government. The teachers were deployed as personal staff of MLAs when BJP was in power. We do not have shortage of teachers in the state," state minister Govind Singh responded to the issue.
Another state minister Dr Prabhu Ram Choudhary told ANI, "We have written a letter to the concerned department that teachers should not be deployed in any other work. There could be an exceptional case. We are trying that teachers should go to schools and teach there."
Reacting to the development, BJP leader Rajnish Agarwal said that it was decided that the teachers will not be deployed for non-teaching job.
"Despite this, teachers have been deployed for non-teaching work. On one hand, there is a shortage of teachers, more than 50,000 teachers are yet to be hired... the examinations for the same have been conducted, but the results have not been declared. So while several schools are running without teachers, but they are making teachers do unnecessary work," Rajnish Agarwal said.
Asked about some BJP legislators also resorting to deploying teachers as their personal staff, he said, "It doesn't matter who the MLA or MP is. It is about policy decision. And you (Congress government) are working in a direction opposite to that."
As per reports, over 2,600 primary schools and almost 2,000 middle schools are operating without regular teachers in Madhya Pradesh.