Identity crisis surfaces as SSLC evaluation begins

Did you know that the Karnataka state high school assistant masters’ association is not really one, but two?

Yes. The two are only headed by different people, but they have the same name and registration number of 72/86-87, and both claim they were started in the same year. Not just this, they also have a membership base of almost 45,000 each.

However, the faction headed by HK Manjunath charges an annual membership of Rs100 and elections are held every year, while the other faction, headed by KC Puttasidda Shetty, charges a fee of Rs5 per annum and holds elections once in five years.

Both presidents have been laying claim to their genuineness for a while now, but the issue came to the fore on Thursday when Manjunath’s faction staged a protest against the measly increase in remuneration for evaluators on the first day of evaluation of the SSLC answer-scripts, while the other faction kept away.

Manjunath alleged that Shetty’s faction comprised retired teachers and that they were using fake documents to continue functioning. “There is no place for retired teachers in the association. But some of them are trying to get a hold on the association using fake documents. We have requested the state to conduct an inquiry. We have been advised to recall a pending case against them at a city civil court,” he said.

However, when DNA contacted Shetty, he alleged that Manjunath’s association was a self-styled one. “They are a self-styled association. We have issued a legal notice to them,” Shetty said.
He added that his association was existing for the last 14 years, and was registered in 1986-87 under the Karnataka Societies Act, 1969.

Both associations, however, made it clear that the evaluation work of SSLC answer-scripts would be completed on time.