Sonepur, March 25: A primary school teacher was dismissed by the Subarnapur district administration for falsely claiming to be a tribal to get the job.
He was also taken into police custody for producing a fake certificate. The district administration had ordered the dismissal of Arjun Sahu of Salepali village after a probe found him guilty of producing the fake caste certificate during his appointment as a Sikshya Sahayak.
District Welfare Officer (DWO), Kalindi Charan Bhoi, who deals with SC/ST issues in the district, said the accused teacher was served the dismissal order on the directive of the district collector.
“The tribal leaders had lodged a complaint against him, alleging that he had got the job on the basis of the fake certificate. A complaint had been lodged against him with the police and he was arrested. During the inquiry, it was found that he was not a tribal,” Bhoi said.
Sources said Arjun Sahu was Kulta by caste and belonged to the other backward class (OBC) community.
While applying for a caste certificate in the office of the additional tehsildar in Dunguripali, Arjun changed his surname from Sahu to Beriha and showed that he was the son of one Mitu Beriha. He mentioned his caste as Binjhal, which comes under the scheduled tribe community. Accordingly, he was issued the caste certificate.
He later applied for the post of Sikshya Sahayak and was employed in a school in San Cherechua village by getting the benefit of reservation quota meant for scheduled tribes.
It was after members of Zilla Adivasi Kalyan Sangh lodged a complaint with the district administration that Rampur tehsildar probed the matter and found that Arjun had obtained the certificate by furnishing fake information.
“We welcome the step of the administration to dismiss the teacher from his job. There are many such cases and we hope the administration will take all the offenders to task. We have submitted a list of 141 persons in Subarnapur district who are enjoying benefits of the tribal community by possessing fake caste certificate,” Bhoi said.
