Pune:
A teacher was sacked by her school for seeking information on salaries and qualifications of colleagues under the Right to Information Act. The school in Kothrud, run by Raja Shivray Pratishtan Society, also did not give her the information sought, stating it had not received an original copy of her application.
Prita Shinde, the sacked teacher, had joined the school on August 1, 1989. Her grouse was that despite being senior and having the necessary educational qualifications, she was not being paid what was due to her.
"At the time of joining, I was a commerce graduate and was an MA in Marathi. In 2000, the school board revised the rules for a teacher's qualification and made a DEd certificate compulsory," said Shinde.
In 2002, Shinde completed a postal DEd course. "But despite that I was not being offered the revised salary scale for teachers. So I demanded information through the RTI Act asking for details of all staff teachers' seniority, qualifications and salaries paid to them," said Shinde.
In October 2009, Shinde filed the RTI application with the Education Board. The board's chairman Ramchandra Jadhav asked the school authorities to issue her the necessary information. But the authorities refused to give the information, claiming that they had not received the original copy of her application and so could not give the information.
On December 22, Shinde filed an appeal against the school to Jadhav , but even then the information was not given to her and she went in for a second appeal. She wrote to Chief Information Officer (Pune circle) Vijay Kuvlekar on March 15. She is still waiting for a response.
On January 11, Shinde says she was barred from entering the school premises. "They told me I could go and file another RTI or go to court, but that they would not take me back on the job," she said.