Harassment brought these teachers, students ‘on road’!
BAHRAICH: Fed up with harassment by some anti-social elements, teachers and students of two primary schools Akbarpura and Gudri in Bahraich resorted to ‘Gandhigiri’ in Steelganj Talab area under city kotwali area on Monday. Both primary schools are housed in the same building.
Locals were surprised to see teachers taking classes on the road in front of the school and soon the news spread. On inquiring it was found that for the last several months, some miscreants had been defacing the school door, lock and black boards with excrement. The teachers had complained about the situation to the concerned officials including police earlier but nothing was done.
Finally, on Monday when the staff and students arrived and saw their school defaced again, they decided to hold classes on the road. Supporting their teachers, students also brought plastic mats and jute bags from their houses and sat on the road. The matter was reported to city kotwali police, municipal board authorities and to the concerned officials of the basic education department. The students and school staff could enter the school after three hours when the sanitary staff from Bahraich Municipality reached the school and cleaned the doors and black boards.
Talking to HT Ranjana Rastogi headmistress of primary school Akbarpura said, “The school was being defaced for some time to mentally harass the staff and students.” While Neelam, headmistress of Gudri primary school, said about 150 students were enrolled in both schools. ‘However, due to defacement many students started avoiding the school,” she said.
Neelam further said they had reported the matter to police on ‘Dial 100’ several times but in vain. “Many times we paid from our pocket for cleaning the locks and school doors by sweepers. Finally we had enough of it and decided to hold classes on road,” she said.
The matter was reported to basic education officer Amarkant Singh, who was not available for comment. While SHO city Kotwali Sanjay Nath Tiwari said he had received the complaint for the first time and the culprit would be caught soon.
As per Faheem Qidawai, a
Many times we paid from our pocket for cleaning the locks and school doors by sweepers NEELAM, principal
local, two classrooms in the school building were in the possession of one Shakeel, a sanitary ware shopkeeper in the area. Shakeel was using them as a godown and before the school boundary wall came up in 2008, he would also store water tankers and other building material on the school premises. He would also park his vehicles there
However, after the boundary wall came up, Shakeel had to stop his practice. The education department went to the court to get the two rooms vacated and the court granted a stay order following which Shakeel allegedly entered the school covertly at night and took the two class rooms again into his possession.
The basic education department did not take up the matter further and the status quo has been maintained ever since.
For the students and staff of the schools though, the harassment began and they got only partial relief on Monday.
SHARIQ RAIS SIDDIQUI