Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 20: Government today suspended Balbir Kumar, Chief Education Officer (CEO) Bandipora, with immediate effect pending an enquiry into his conduct.
A Government Order (No. 79-JK (Edu) of 2026 dated 20.02.2026) issued here said that the action has been taken under Rule 31 of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956.
The order states that pending investigation, Balbir Kumar stands placed under suspension. “During the suspension period, he will remain attached to the office of the Directorate of School Education, Kashmir”, the order read.
An official said that Kumar was suspended for issuing a relieving order (No. CEO/Bpr/ Estt/026/ 1277-82 dated 19-02-2026) of 34 teachers who are originally from Gurez Zone and were temporarily deployed in various other zones of Bandipora district.
“One of the reasons for his suspension is that he has been mentioned in the order “Issued with the approval of competent authority” while there was no approval from the competent authority,” the official said.
Twenty-five of 34 teachers of Gurez zone were attached in the last one year since the taking over of the new Government led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah while nine others were attached in the last 5 years. As per the order of the CEO Bandipora, majority of them had been deployed in other zones of the district without any reason while the schools in far flung areas of Gurez are suffering due to acute staff shortage.
The order states that the attachment of these teachers was of temporary nature and most of them for a specified period only.
The order further states that the staff rationalization and administrative review has revealed acute shortage of teaching staff in their original zone of posting impacting the functioning of the schools there.
As per the order they were asked to report to their original place of postings immediately and were deemed relieved from present deployments. The official said that the order of the CEO was as per Government policy of cancelling all the deployments and relieving these teachers as the schools in rural and far flung areas of Kashmir are suffering due to lack of teaching staff while in urban areas and schools near the district headquarters have excess staff due to deployment of teachers from far flung areas to urban areas.
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