Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Picnic tragedy: demand to cancel teachers' degrees

Staff Reporter

`Follow medical and legal councils' norms in punishing guilty'

VIJAYAWADA: The parents and relatives of the 15 children who lost their lives in the picnic tragedy at Keesara on Tuesday demanded cancellation of teaching degrees of those teachers of Ravindra Bharathi Public School who were responsible for it.

Addressing a press conference, they said school correspondent Veeramachaneni Venkateswara Rao and the teachers "who failed to discharge their responsibility of protecting the students must not be allowed to run the school or teach in future."

Sambasiva Rao, a parent, argued that the kind of action that the Medical Council of India and the Bar Council of India would initiate by rusticating the degrees of doctors and lawyers found guilty of misconduct should be contemplated against the teachers too. M. Deepal Nayak (Bala Satya Sai's father), Shiv Kumar (Sk. Sharif's father), K. Chand (Sk. Sharif's uncle), Srinivasa Rao (Rohit Satya Sai's father) and other parents said that they did not intend to make payment of ex gratia a major issue.

"When the management called us for discussion on payment of ex gratia, one of us casually mentioned the Rs. 25-lakh figure. Immediately at the instance of his wife, the correspondent began acting as though he had a heart attack. How come he did not get such an attack when 15 students died?" they questioned. They said the management had stage-managed demonstration by some parents in favour of re-opening of school. The parents also denied having cast aspersions on CPI corporator P. Gowtham Reddy and said they welcomed his initiative to help them.

Magisterial probe

In-charge Sub-Collector Ch. Bhanu Prasad, who is also Sub-Divisional Magistrate, will conduct a magisterial inquiry on December 9 into the picnic tragedy. The inquiry will take place at the Sub-Collector's office at 11 a.m. Anyone with any details about the incident could appear before the Sub-Collector, a release said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Tension in school as part of building is demolished
COW strays into blockades
Settling `scores' with hinges
Picnic tragedy: demand to cancel teachers' degrees
Regulate private schools, says DEO
Held on charge of cheating
Tributes paid to Ambedkar
Around the City
In Vijayawada Today

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu