Nearly 1,500 schoolteachers have been given the assignment of lighting earthen lamps along the Ganga’s banks in Varanasi on Monday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits his constituency to attend Dev Deepavali celebrations.

Academics have opposed the decision, saying teachers cannot be made to act like party cadres.

This year, the Varanasi administration has decided to light five lakh diyas on the 7km stretch on the other side of the river between Raj Ghat and Assi Ghat.

Chief development officer Madhusudan Hulgu has issued a direction seeking the participation of teachers in Varanasi in lighting the diyas, a programme that will last 20 minutes.

The stretch has been divided into 20 sectors of 350 metres each and officials have been entrusted specific sectors. Each sector has 20 sub-sectors and each sub-sector has been assigned to a lead teacher. Each lead teacher will have a team of 15 teachers to assist in lighting the diyas.

The district administration will provide the diyas, oil and cotton. The rehearsal for the event started on Thursday.

Around six teachers this newspaper spoke to said they had not been provided any transport allowance. The teachers come to the ghats and take boats to reach the other side of the river for the rehearsals. Each teacher is having to spend Rs 40 to cross the river on a shared boat. Nearly 1,500 teachers, including women, have been involved.

“Tomorrow will be our last rehearsal. For the past three days, we have not been able to take online classes. We travel to the other side of the Ganga and practise lighting the diyas. The administration has given the order, every teacher has to follow it,” said a teacher, preferring anonymity.

Basic education officer Rakesh Singh has issued the chief development officer’s circular about lighting five lakh diyas to block education officers who have circulated it among the schoolteachers.

Educationists and the Uttar Pradesh Prathamik Siksha Mitra Sangh (UPPSMS), an association of para-teachers, have criticised the move.

“This is wrong. Teachers are supposed to teach. Under the Right To Education (RTE) Act, they cannot be engaged in any non-academic work except elections, census or disaster management. Lighting diyas is certainly not a teacher’s job. Such work will demotivate and demoralise teachers,” said Tribhuvan Singh, UPPSMS vice-president.

Prof Madhu Prasad, a retired Delhi University teacher and member of the All India Forum for RTE, said lighting diyas at the Prime Minister’s event was party work for which teachers could not be engaged.

“Party workers should do this job. Teachers cannot be replacements for party workers,” she said.

Prasad said teachers deserved respect. “Treating them as cannon fodder for a spectacle meant for the Prime Minister is disrespecting them,” she said.

Prasad pointed out that the Prime Minister had time to attend Dev Deepavali celebrations but not for meeting agitating farmers in Delhi.

She said teachers should not be engaged in jobs related to elections, census and disaster management, too.

“Most government schools do not have one teacher per class. Engaging them in non-teaching activities means the government does not bother about teaching in schools,” Prasad said.

District magistrate Kasuahal Raj Sharma did not respond to calls from this newspaper. Rakesh Singh, the basis education officer, did not wish to comment. “I am in a meeting. I cannot talk,” he said.