Bangalore: This teacher's plight fails to move the govt

For reasons best known to it, the state government’s department of education has been mulishly refusing to accept the application for voluntary retirement by the gravely-ill headmaster of a high school.

R Prahlad, headmaster of the government high school at Devagere near Kengeri, who suffers from coronary heart disease and renal failure, has been trying to get voluntary retirement, but the government is unresponsive.

Prahlad’s case is strange. He wants to retire, not seek extension of service or a post-retirement sinecure as senior government officers tend to do. The government’s stubborn refusal to let go of Prasad is contrary to its policy of encouraging VRS applications by its staff in order to reduce the numbers.

“I cannot function as headmaster as my ill health does not permit me to commute in a bus or wait at the bus stand to reach my school 10 km away. I don’t want to be a burden on the government and sought retirement, but the authorities concerned are yet to consider my appeal, even after a year,’’ said Prahlad. He has not attended the school for the last two months, and his salary for the period has been cut.

Not that Prahlad is so well off that he is seeking VRS in order to enjoy a retired life. With his illness preventing him from working, his family comprising him, his wife and a son depend on the pittance that his wife makes by selling pickles she makes at home, and Rs4,000 a month that his son gets as salary from a firm where he works.

The chairman and members of medical board, General Hospital, Jayanagar, examined Prahlad on July 12, 2012 and declared that he was suffering from chronic type 2 diabetes mellitus with hypertension. The medical board members also found that Prahlad was suffering from coronary heart disease, chronic kidney disease - CKD, stage 3 progressing on to stage 4 and chronic depressive disorder on treatment.

“He is medically and physically unfit to continue in government service,” the board members said in their report to the government. KB Shanappa, MLC, even wrote to education Kimmane Ratnakar, requesting him to consider Prahalad’s VRS application on humanitarian grounds.

He said his intention in applying for voluntary retirement was not to be a burden on the government, but to be able to help his wife in her pickles sales. “If I can retire and get my severance dues from the government, I can repay my loans, and leave something for my wife and son. I don’t want to die as a defaulter on loans taken from money lenders. Why can’t the government show me a little mercy,” he asks.

Indeed, why can’t it?