The Hindu : Front Page : School recognition cancelled

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 05, 2005

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Front Page

School recognition cancelled

Staff Reporter

Government to run Ravindra Bharati for this academic year

TENSE STANDOFF: Parents arguing with one another in front of the school on Sunday. PHOTO: RAJU V.

VIJAYAWADA: A week after the picnic tragedy that claimed the lives of 15 students, the State Government on Sunday cancelled the recognition of Ravindra Bharati English Medium School at Satyanarayanapuram in the city. The school, however, will be run by the Government for this academic year.

Based on a report from District Educational Officer A. Satyanarayana Reddy, Regional Joint Director C.A.V. Prasad issued orders cancelling the recognition of the school and holding its management responsible for the tragedy.

The RJD, in his report, observed that that school management had not taken proper care while organising a picnic and did not follow the existing rules pertaining to safety and security of students.

Curbs on management

Krishna district Collector Navin Mittal, also the District Magistrate, issued orders prohibiting the entry of school secretary and correspondent Veeramachaneni Venkateswara Rao and members of the school management into the school. Under section 144 of the Cr.P.C., the correspondent and members of the management will not be allowed anywhere within 200 metres of the school. The Collector also issued orders for constitution of a nine-member committee to run the school till the end of this academic year. Of the nine members, three members should be senior teachers without any criminal record, three from parents, including one from the 15 parents of the deceased students, and the remaining three members should be officials. Members of the committee will have to open a joint account in a bank, collect school fee from the students as usual and deposit the same in the account. They could withdraw money from the account for payment of salaries.

Parents hail decision

Except those who accompanied the students to the picnic, other teachers could discharge their duties as usual. "The school will run as usual from Monday," Mr. Mittal said. Parents welcomed the Government's decision. Some of them said now they could answer the questions being posed by their children on reopening of the school and wanted the Government to do justice to the parents of the deceased students.

"For the last one week, my son had been repeatedly asking me from when he would go to school. Today I got the answer," said S. Kishore Kumar, - father of Sai Chaitanya Pavan. P. Suvarna Raju, father of Sahithi and Sarnya of eighth and seventh standards respectively, said they had conducted parents committee meeting only to bring pressure on the management and to make it announce ex gratia to the kin of the deceased students.

"I am very happy, as my kids will not lose an academic year," he said. A. Ravisankar Srinivas, father of Prithvi, a sixth standard student, felt that the Government had taken the right decision.

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