Students stop going to school for fear of Sarpanch

JALANDHAR, AUGUST 1 Allegedly under threat from the village Sarpanch, nearly 50 students have stopped going to school for the past few days in Khusropur village. All these students belong to the Dalit community and their parents said they would not send their children to the Government Elementary School Khusropur as they were not safe there.

The children had reportedly got their scholarship form meant for SC students attested from ex-Sarpanch Vijay Kumar, who was removed from the Sarpanch’s post recently. That led the present Sarpanch Gurnam Guddu, who also belongs to the Dalit community, to visit the school and inform the teachers that he was the Sarpanch and the forms should be attested by him not by the ex-Sarpanch.

The students who got their forms attested by the ex-Sarpanch alleged that Gurnam Guddu had come to their school a few days back and even before reaching the teachers he asked those students to stand up who belonged to the abadi area of the village. ‘‘After that he started threatening us and also slapped some children for getting the forms attested from the ex-Sarpanch,’’ said Rajiv, one such student of Class VIII.

Kashmir Kaur of Khusropur said her children studied in the same school and one of her sons was slapped by Gurnam Guddu. Another parent Purshotam Lal said his daughter Mamta was also threatened severely that her parents would be sent to jail. He said she fainted at that and was being hospitalised.

Ex-Sarpanch Vijay Kumar claimed that he had attested the forms when he was the Sarpanch, not now.

Gurnam Guddu said he went to the school just to inform the teachers that the students should get attested their forms attested from him not from the ex-Sarpanch. He refuted the charges of having slapped and threatened the children and alleged that the ex-Sarpanch was provoking his supporters to not send their children to school.

School headmaster Kuldip Singh said he was engaged in some seminars and had not been going to school for the past ten days. He said he had got information from his teachers that recently-nominated Sarpanch Gurnam Guddu had visited the school and told the teachers that some children had got their forms attested from the ex-Sarpanch which was not right. The headmaster said he had no information about the Sarpanch having threatened or slapped the children.

He also said that students who did not attend school under the influence of any kind of politics would be marked absent. He appealed to the villagers to spare the schools from their party politics.

SSP Jalandhar Ishwar Singh said he had sent a DSP to investigate the matter.

Source: Indian Express