Sindh cabinet lifts ban on teachers’ transfers

KARACHI:

The Sindh government has introduced a portal where only 'electronic' transfer and postings applications of teachers will be accepted in the province. At the same time the ban on the transfer and posting of teachers has also been lifted. This was decided on Tuesday at a cabinet meeting that was chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.

An official privy to the development told The Express Tribune that there would be no physical need for the teachers to approach the district education officer (DEO) for transfer. Now they could access the web portal to process the online application. "Codes are already allotted to teachers who can enter the code and process their application," the cabinet was informed.

"The teachers will be required to submit E-transfer applications for their transfer during two weeks of January every year. The scrutiny of transfer applications will be done by the DEO office during the third and fourth week of January. Thereafter, the orders will be uploaded on the education department website in the third week of March every year," said Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani while briefing the meeting about the system.

Ghani said these timelines would not be applicable in some cases such as reopening of single-room schools, wedlock cases, death of spouse cases and teachers suffering from debilitating, chronic disease.

The cabinet approved the transfer and posting policy for the schoolteachers which will come into effect from new academic year.

Secretary School Education Ahmed Bux Narejo said the new policy is meant to open all viable closed schools. He added that his department would ensure availability of teachers in schools and maintain student-teacher ratio.

During the meeting, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah directed all departments, particularly local bodies authorities and semi-government organisations to resolve the pension issues of their employees.

The CM said: "An employee who retires from service must receive their pension and dues in time." He pointed out that local bodies such as KMC, DMCs, Sukkur municipal corporation and some others had failed to develop a modern and efficient pension payment mechanism. As a result, retired employees have run from pillar to post for their right. "This is unfair and should be addressed on priority," he ordered. The CM directed the chief secretary to personally resolve the issue.

Also read: Sindh cabinet approves Rs4b for monsoon relief

Land for oil palm trees

In order to meet the demand for edible oil, Sindh cabinet provided 3,000 acres of forest land to Sindh Coastal and Development Department for palm planation. The idea was floated by Barrister Murtaza Wahab, the CM's advisor on law and coastal development department.

The Coastal Development Authority officials told the cabinet that Pakistan had a big demand for edible oil. It imported edible oil worth $3.15 billion annually to meet domestic requirement which constitutes the highest import bill after petroleum products.

Murtaza Wahab said that the Sindh Coastal Development Authority (SCDA) has a success story of oil palm plantation and installation of oil palm extraction mini mill in the coastal belt.

He requested the cabinet to provide SCDA 3,000 acres of forest land at two connected forests, Kathore and Hayat Gaho, taluka Ghorabari for planting oil palm trees to produce oil.

Subsidy for farming community

The agriculture department told the cabinet that they intend to launch three initiatives to provide relief to farmers to address food security issues. They include provision of agriculture implements at subsidised cost; subsidy for installation of solar tube wells and subsidy for the installation of controlled atmospheric stores on turnkey basis.

The chief minister said that the cold storages should be established at divisional headquarter level preferably in private sector or public-private partnership basis. The government would encourage the private sector in this respect, he added. The cabinet agreed with the chief minister and said that because of the persisting power shortage the growers were not inclined to install solar tube wells, therefore the government should launch this scheme.

Land for SEZ grid station

The land utilisation department presented a case of allotment of seven acres to NTDC for installation of 220 KV grid station for Dhabeji Special Economic Zone (SEZ). A Rs4.25 billion project has been approved under CPEC to provide electricity to the SEZ.

The cabinet approved land for installation of a grid station and directed LU department to complete the legal formalities.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2021.