A government school in Bihar’s Bhagalpur has been under lock and key for the past nine days after the principal and teachers alleged that they received threats amounting to “massacre” if they did not stop teaching. The district administration has not yet been able to act against these threats allegedly made by local goons.
Rajkiya Muniram Khetan Middle School in Bhagalpur’s Nathnagar remained locked for the ninth consecutive day after these alleged threats. The families of these children are now concerned about their future.
Dharamvir Sah, whose child is a student at the school, said, “The school is close for the past nine days. My child is not able to study. I am worried about his future. There are over 400 children in this school. All guardians should come together and complain about this. The children have nothing to do and are wandering aimlessly. Only the children of the poor study here and no one is worried about their future.”
Even as the staff made these allegations, district education officer Sanjay Kumar Singh suspended the principal of the school, Pankaj Moses. The education officer said the work of teaching and learning will soon resume. “The matter is that there was a personal enmity between the principal of the school and a local goon. Instead of approaching the proper authority, the principal violated the Right to Education Act and locked the school. He also took other teachers with him. We have suspended the principal and given an ultimatum to other teachers, else they will face action. When we tried to find the goon with the help of police, we found out that he was missing. Now, we are trying to open the school as soon as possible,” he said.
News18 reached the principal to know about the threats. “Local goons keep threatening us that they will kill us and slaughter schoolchildren. On the ninth of this month, Vikrant and his goons came to our office and said if the school remained open, then a massacre will take place in the school. The school supervisor was also present at the time. You can ask anyone about Vikrant Kumar’s nature; he is a criminal and everyone is afraid of him. There was a nexus between the earlier principal and Vikrant,” Moses told News18.
In the past, too, Vikrant would come to the school and demand extortion money. He forcibly took Rs 2,000 from me and threw away my register. The reason for this was that he came for a registration without verification and when I asked for the documents, he misbehaved with me and tried to assault me. At that time, an FIR was filed and he was put behind bars. But after he got bail and came out of jail, he went to the house of one of the witnesses and threatened him. After this, on the 9th, when he threatened us with dire consequences, other teachers and I decided to apply for a transfer that has been submitted to the district education officer,” he said.
The DIG and Bhagalpur SSP did not respond to phone calls and text messages. But what was shocking was that the Bhagalpur MLA, Ajit Sharma, was totally unaware of the situation. “I didn’t know about this. I will ask the police officials about what is happening. We will see what can be done,” he said. Sharma is also the chief whip of the state Congress unit.
Local residents alleged that neither police nor any officials of the education department had visited the school for a week. According to residents near the school, in the last five years, the school has been locked dozens of times and no steps have been taken to curb the activities of local goons.
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