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School gherao: Bratya congratulates council for ‘interfering’

20 December 2012

statesman news service  

KOLKATA, 20 DEC: While education minister Mr Bratya Basu declares in public that schools must solve their internal problems, today he actually called up the officials of higher secondary council to congratulate them for handling the entire situation in which the council actually interfered in a law and order problem.  

“The gherao was lifted as the council officials reached the school on time. So I called to thank them,” said minister Bratya Basu today proving that he had masterminded the entire “goof-up”, though officially he washed his hands of the affair.  

Following the instruction of the minister, the council officials visited Rishi Aurobindo Balika Vidyapeeth at Santoshpur where 29 unsuccessful candidates gheraoed their teachers for over 21 hours. Finding discrepancies in the score list, the officials took a photo copy of the score list and met the minister. He did not thank them then, rather a decision of retest was announced which was withdrawn a day after, as similar protests flared up across the state.  

“It is very unfortunate that no one knows the limit of their jurisdiction. The Higher Secondary Council affiliates the higher secondary section of the schools and conducts the Higher Secondary examination. The officials should not be sent to lift a gherao," said a former official of the council.  

The Santoshpur school could not take any decision today, said Ms Srimati Ghosh, headmistress of the school adding, “We received the answer-scripts this evening from the council.” Meanwhile, similar protests took place in a school at north Kolkata where unsuccessful candidates demanded they be sent for board examinations.