The Tamil Nadu Teachers-Wardens Welfare Association (TNTWA) has criticised the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare (ADTW) Department’s decision to terminate the employment of at least 75 cooks working in its hostels, mainly on the reason that they were overqualified as they had passed Class X.
The cooks were part of the roughly 800 appointments made in 2020-21 by the department. According to the orders issued regarding their termination, the minimum educational qualification for the post of cook is to be a literate in Tamil. The orders also said the person should not have cleared Class X.
Other reasons cited for the cancellation of some of these appointments included the fact that the appointed candidates hailing from a district other than the one in which the hostels are present, they belonged to communities other than Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes and they were older than the stipulated age. The association alleged that the other reasons mentioned in some of the cases were also not justified according to established rules and different judgments of the Madras High Court.
