Questions raised over PCMC's appointment of 14 teachers, alleged breach of transfer rules

The education department of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has approved the appointment of 14 teachers to vacant junior teacher posts. The appointments were made under the provisions for spouse unification and one-sided intra-district transfer. It is alleged that service transfers under these provisions are legally barred. The order was issued recently and has drawn sharp reactions in education and political circles.

Former municipal commissioner Shekhar Singh had given clear instructions against such transfers during his tenure. The question now is whether those instructions and the rules in force were followed in the latest appointments. According to the order of the corporation's primary education department, no-objection certificates received from the zilla parishads concerned were taken into account. On the basis of these documents, the appointment of 14 teachers was approved under the spouse-unification or one-sided transfer provisions.

The order lists the teachers' names, their present departments, the proposed place of posting and the category of appointment. All 14 appointments have been placed in the open category. The teachers are from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nanded, Nandurbar, Hingoli and Beed districts. They include both men and women, and all are currently working as assistant teachers. They could fill vacancies in the corporation's education department, but the bigger question is whether government resolutions and the corporation's own policies were followed.

An order on service transfers of primary teachers was issued on August 28, 2024. It gives directions on proposals for spouse unification and one-sided transfers. In view of this, people are asking which rules and provisions were applied in approving these 14 appointments in 2026.

Under the new order, teachers from various zilla parishads of Maharashtra have been given places in PCMC schools. This service transfer process gave teachers from rural areas a chance to seek postings in Pimpri-Chinchwad, a B-category municipal corporation. The question now is under which provisions such transfers were permitted.

The state government's policy lays down the process for intra-district and service transfers. Questions remain over which specific provision the corporation's education department relied on for the approval, who gave the final approval, and how the files moved. There is also a demand for an inquiry into whether any pressure or personal interest was behind reversing the former commissioner's decision.

The administration has not yet clarified its position. Complaints have been raised about the workload of the corporation's existing teachers. Meanwhile, there are allegations that teachers from outside the corporation's system were accommodated through appointments that went against the rules. Senior administrative officials have not spoken openly on the matter so far. Some people say a detailed inquiry could expose a large network of irregularities in the education department. These claims remain allegations for now, and the outcome of any inquiry is not yet known.

The appointment orders carry several conditions for the teachers concerned. The corporation will give no additional benefit regarding seniority, pay scale or other service entitlements. Appointments will be according to available vacancies, and teachers must accept the prescribed conditions. After accepting the appointment, teachers must submit original certificates of academic and professional qualifications and other required documents. The orders also say the appointments will be subject to applicable government resolutions and the corporation's rules.

Questions are being asked about how 14 teachers received approval despite the alleged legal bar on the transfer process and the former commissioner's instructions. Several teachers' organisations and social activists have made serious allegations of monetary dealings behind the issuing of the order. They claim the rules must have been set aside. There is also talk within the corporation's administration about whether money was taken to relax the rules. Corporator Sonali Gavhane is reported to have raised the issue at a meeting of the corporation's general body and demanded that Commissioner Vijay Suryawanshi inquire into the cases of spouse unification and service transfers.