Enquiry panel reports against DTE director

An enquiry committee has found some of the complaints against state Technical Education Department director H U Talwar to be prima facie true.

The panel — appointed by the Higher Education Department and headed by IAS officer Vikas Kishore Suralkar, who is also the executive director of the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) — submitted a 158-page report to the state government.

“Prima facie it is proved that the performance of the Director, Technical Education, is not satisfactory,” says the report, a copy of which is available with DH.

The complaints against Talwar pertain to misuse of public office, harassment of colleagues, misuse of power, purchase powers, admissions, appointment to teaching posts, violation of roaster/reservation norms, appointment of teachers with fake documents etc.

There were 54 complaints against him, of which 11 have been found to be true. “Out of the 54 complaints, 20 were unknown and six had no proper documentation. No direct involvement of the director was proved in 17 of the remaining 28 complaints. The rest 11 were found to be true prima facie and the director’s performance is not satisfactory,” the report states.

In one of the cases, Talwar reportedly favoured the management of a private engineering college by converting unfilled seats into management quota. “It has been proved that private college managements have distributed more seats than their intake. The technical education director has failed to discharge his duties in the interest of students and his conduct was not satisfactory,” the report says.

Talwar joined the department as a faculty of a government polytechnic college. Ten years ago, he was promoted as the director. There were objections to his appointment too.

Sources from the Department of Higher Education, however, said, “The report will be submitted to the Higher Education minister recommending the suspension of the director and seeking explanation or sending him on long leave.”

Reacting to the report’s findings, Talwar told DH that he has not received any notice yet.

“I have an objection against this enquiry. The IAS officer appointed to conduct the inquiry has no eligibility as my post is above the rank of IAS selection grade. When I was appointed in 2009, the IAS officer was not even appointed and he is a 2012 batch officer. I do not know on what grounds he was appointed as the inquiry officer. Further, I directly come under the control of the Department of Personnel Administration and Reforms (DPAR). This inquiry has been done with an intention of tarnishing my image and I will question this at a suitable forum after receiving a notice,” Talwar said.