Education department official transferred over removal of teacher for alleged 'communal remarks'

MANGALURU : The government has transferred D Ramachandra Naik, deputy director of public instruction (DDPI) in Dakshina Kannada district, apparently in view of the controversy over the removal of a teacher from a private school in the city following her alleged ‘ant-Hindu’ remarks in the class room.

Naik has been transferred as a lecturer at a government teachers’ college in Belagavi, an official communique said. He has been replaced by Venkatesh Subraya Patagara, who has been serving as the deputy director (planning) at the office of the additional commissioner, school education department at Kalaburagi. The transfers have been made with immediate effect, the statement said.

Though it mentions that the transfer is part of a broader administrative reshuffling, there are clear indications that the shuffling has been ordered following the controversy surrounding the recent expulsion of a teacher at St Gerosa English school in the city. A section of teachers and the public were unhappy with the DDPI for the manner in which it handled the allegation against the teacher of hurting the sentiments of a particular religious group.