Daijiworld Media Network - Tumakuru (SP)

Tumakuru, Mar 14: Relating to the death of three students and a watchman of Vidyavaridhi International Residential School at Huliyaru in Chikkanayakanahalli taluk in the district, V S Ugrappa, chairman of Karnataka Legislature Committee on Prevention of Violence and Sexual Abuse of Women and Children, has ordered registration of two fresh cases against the school authorities.

In an instruction passed on to the police department, the committee said incidents of disorderly and illegal activities in the said school need to be probed. The chairman of the committee pointed out that the school management should be tried for payment of low salaries to teachers, and also about boards having been hung in classes, which warn students who doze off during classes with fine of Rs 100.

Confirming this, Ugrappa, who visited the school with a team comprising committee members, said in a press conference held on Monday that the school management was directly responsible for the death of students.  He said that various defects were found in the school functioning. "Out of 1,032 students of the school and 75 staff including 55 teachers, only 29 stay in the hostel. This hostel is being run illegally," he claimed.

Ugrappa said that the class rooms are being used as hostel rooms, and toilet and  bathroom facilities are not satisfactory. Food is being prepared in temporary shed, and the management has not  given importance to quality, hygiene, and safety aspects, he alleged. He said that the teachers are paid a paltry sum of Rs 5,000 per month as salary and they are made to work like bonded labour. He accused the management of throwing to winds the minimum wage rules. He further stated that penalizing students for dozing off is punishable under Right to Education Act. He said that the committee will soon recommend to the government to frame new law to exercise control over CBSE and ICSC schools in the state, as he observed that the education department officials do not have any information about these schools which do not fall within their jurisdiction.