New Delhi, June 30: After the Indian institutes of management and NCERT, Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers have caught the attention of human resource development minister Arjun Singh.

His ministry today announced a new transfer policy for the teachers, seeking to “undo the damage” done by the NDA government.

The complaint against former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi was that in 2000 he had introduced a transfer policy that many considered too harsh. Seven thousand teachers out of a total of 29,000 were transferred last year. A continuation of the policy would have meant the tran- sfer of another 5,000 teachers this year.

“The previous dispensation decided transfers on the basis of organisational interest and not the interest of individual teachers,” said an HRD official. The then policy said a teacher is “liable to be transferred on the recommendations of the principal and the chairperson of the Kendriya Vidyalaya management”.

“The transfers were carried out cynically, resulting in teachers moving from down south to the Northeast and from the Northeast to the west,” the ministry said.

Singh’s new policy says “no transfers will be made other than on administrative grounds”. The transfers should mostly be done against vacancies on the basis of requests, it adds.

The ministry said it would also try to ensure that a husband and wife are not forced to stay apart in different places in cases where either of them is a central government employee.

“Kendriya Vidyalaya employees will not be transferred unless both the spouses can be posted at the same place,” the policy reads.

“The same principle may also apply to teachers whose spouses work in central public sector undertakings or are state government employees,” it adds.

“Apart from these there would be a general approach towards understanding the problems of the teachers, particularly women, and it would be the duty of the Kendriya Vidyalaya administration to ensure that no unnecessary distress is caused to anyone,” says the new policy.

During Joshi’s tenure, the teachers had complained of high-handedness and arbitrary transfers.

The new policy states: “We may take some time to undo the damage caused by the old policy but the process will start this year itself.”