Those teachers are allegedly drawing their salary for the last two to three months from the Government treasury though the Finance Department vehemently denies it.

The teachers were illegally appointed by the Circle Inspector (CI) of schools of Sambalpur in gross violation of all selection procedures, sources alleged.

Even a few officials of the SMED including the CI of the schools who were in-charge of filling up the existing vacancies overlooked the direction of the Government in earmarking the due number of posts for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates.

Sources told this newspaper that the appointment of the teachers was so swift that non-formal teachers, having more than 10 years of teaching experience, were not called for theinterview despite the Government direction in this regard. However, the district authorities of the SMED maintained that there were no non-formal teachers with the said number of years of experience in the district.

Apart from the reported illegal appointment of teachers in primary schools of the district, several candidates have been illegally appointed as physical education and training teachers and Hindi teachers in the district, sources alleged.

On being questioned, Minister of State for School and Mass Education Ripunath Seth told this paper that he has ordered a departmental probe into such complaints of illegal appointments by the CI of schools.Officials in the Finance Department were also unable to clarify how the illegally-appointed teachers were drawing salary from the Government Treasury.

Director of Elementary Education Rabi Narayan Pani admitted that there has been a number of allegations against the Sambalpur CI of schools over appointment of primary teachers. ``I have asked for reportsfrom the district inspector and CI of schools'', he said. He added that the SMED had transferred the Sambalpur CI of schools to Bhawanipatna.