Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (EP)
Kundapur, Jul 15: The villagers of Devalkunda here protested against a private school on Tuesday July 14 alleging that the school committee had created false records for its registration. The school has been running for the last four years. As the crowd locked up class rooms and also the main gate of the school, the children were deprived of their classes.
The protesters also assaulted the DDPI who had come for inspection. The DDPI has lodged a police complaint at Kundapur police station against the protesters for obstructing him from discharging his duty.
The Vijaya aided higher primary school was functioning in the government land at Devalkunda for the last few years. However the school was closed in 2009 as no student was enrolled in it. The school remained closed till 2012. Later a local named Amparu Subhaschandra Shetty with a new proposal and with cooperation of the school development committee members, submitted an application with the relevant records to the authorities for permission to open a junior primary school which was approved. It was functioning well and there were 267 students in it during this year.
Meanwhile, the committee of Vijaya Makkala Koota submitted an application to the deputy commissioner requesting for a leasing of government land to the school. The locals started to protest soon after the news spread, alleging that the school had used fake documents to get permission to run. As the class rooms were locked, the children were forced to stay inside school auditorium. Verbal altercation took place between the protesters and school management on this occasion. At the same time, headmistress of the school, Deepika Shetty, has alleged that death threats were posed to her. She said she would be lodging complaint in the police station here about this incident soon.
The situation turned tense as more than two hundred people had gathered both in favour of the school management and against it. Meanwhile, the DDPI who came for inspection to verify reports that sixth standard has been added to the school without prior authorization, was taken to task by the protesters. The DDPI who tried to escape was allegedly assaulted by some protesters near the gate.
Police circle inspector here, P M Divakar, who arrived at the school, tried to pacify the protesters and obtained separate statements from DDPI and school headmistress, Deepika Subhaschandra Shetty.
He also called both the groups to the police station and recorded their statements.
A case has been registered against Raghavendra Nempu, Mallari Ganesh, Anil Balekere, Ice Candy Chandra, Udaya Jadi, Naga Hemmadi and Riksha Rama for allegedly assaulting the DDPI and preventing him from discharging his official duties.