Guardians and students of the Dalkhola Brick Field FP School on Monday confined the headmaster in a room in the school on Monday after the school authorities failed to organize the Saraswati Puja in the school this year. Some students and guardians also demonstrated outside the gate of the school at Dalkhola in North Dinajpur district in the morning.
After being informed, a councillor of the Dalkhola municipality turned up at the school and controlled the situation. There are seven teachers and around 350 students at the Dalkhola school. “Students started gathering on the school premises since early morning to offer floral tributes to the goddess. However, the school remained closed, while a group of guardians called up the headmaster.
The headmaster then turned up at the school and informed the guardians that the Puja would not be held in the school this year. Subsequently, the guardians and the students argued and later confined him in a room and started demonstrating there,” sources said. A guardian, Badal Saha said that Saraswati Puja is held in the school every year.
“The students were so excited about the Puja and they reached the school early in the morning. They wanted to offer floral tributes to the goddess. Even after a long wait, the teachers did not come, and the guardians demonstrated in protest against the harassment meted out to the students,” he said.
Headmaster Swaraj Gami said that the Puja was not held because some of teachers were not ready to organize it this year. He did not want to comment more on the issue. The Councillor of Ward No 10 of Dalkhola Municipality, Kailash Saha, said, “The Puja was not held in the school because the time of the Puja expired according to the version of the ‘panjika’.
I have requested the school authority to not make such mistakes again.”