CALCUTTA, 9 November 2004 — Bowing to demands by parents’ bodies, West Bengal government has decided to ban smoking and consumption of ‘paan’, tobacco or alcohol by school teachers as long as they are in service.
The ban on drinking and smoking publicly will cover their entire professional career under a revolutionary new code of conduct which will come into force early next year in the Left Front-ruled state.
West Bengal School Education Minister Kanti Biswas said that the new service rule will be applicable not only to 125,000 government teachers but to the teaching staff of all state-aided schools as soon as the notification is published in the official gazette.
The new code will also abolish the lucrative practice of giving tuitions besides banning vices like smoking and drinking altogether.
Recently, the Education Department outlawed corporal punishment in schools across West Bengal in accordance with a Calcutta High Court judgement. But predictably enough, the new code of conduct permits teachers to form unions or associations, contest panchayat (local bodies), state legislative assembly and parliamentary elections elections and resort to strikes if necessary.
