Secondary edu dept compiling data of staff who died on poll duty

LUCKNOW: Now the state secondary education department is compiling data of the staff of aided and government schools who succumbed to Covid on panchayat poll duty.

Mahendra Dev, additional education director, secondary education, in a letter dated May 21 to all divisional joint education directors asked to send the list of teachers and staff who died of Covid on duty.

“Yes, I have asked the officials to prepare a list of such secondary school staff in a prescribed format and email it to me. I will be able to share the data with the press on Monday,” said Mahendra Dev over phone on Saturday.

On May 19, MLC Suresh Kumar Tripathi, a prominent teachers’ association officebearer, wrote a letter to chief minister Yogi Adityanath claiming that more than 425 teachers and staff of secondary education died after contracting infection during the recently held panchayat election.

“Maximum teachers contracted infection during training that was held in packed auditoriums where Covid protocols were thrown to the winds. I am glad that chief minister took note of it and the secondary education department is now compiling list of those who died on duty,” Tripathi said.

UP primary teachers’ association chief Dinesh Chandra Sharma said teachers’ association will remain united in their fight to get justice for kin of those teachers who died during panchayat poll duty.

Both Sharma and Tripathi have welcomed chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s announcement in which he stressed on the need to amend or modify election guidelines to help government staff with ex gratia.