Bengal school ragging: Principal resigns, Mamata assures action over girl’s death
13 Sep 2013 10:56 PM GMT
Angry protestors - mostly parents and guardians - laid siege of a West Bengal school on Thursday forcing its principal to resign for the death of a minor girl student after being ‘ragged’.
The Mamata Banerjee government derided the ‘hooliganism’ but assured strict action against all those responsible for the girl’s death, which her parents claimed was due to trauma and shock following the ragging.
Oindrila Das, 10, a Class 5 student of Christ Church School in Dum Dum on Kolkata’s northern outskirts, died on Wednesday a week after she was allegedly locked up inside the school toilet by some of her seniors who demanded money from her. Parents and guardians ransacked the school demanding the arrest and removal of principal Helen Sarkar, alleging negligence and inaction on her part.
With the agitation streching late into the evening warranting heavy police deployment, Sarkar not only apologised publicly for the incident and assured strict action, but later tendered her resignation which was read out by police. But the move failed to pacify the protestors as ‘the resignation was written on a plain paper which has no value’.
Police had a torrid time controlling the protestors and their repeated pleas to calm down failed to have any impact.
The siege was later lifted after Sarkar formally put down her papers. Meanwhile, the victim’s uncle Alokesh Das said, ‘The chief minister today called up Oindrila’s mother and expressed shock and grief over the girl’s death, and assured proper action’.
The Mamata Banerjee government derided the ‘hooliganism’ but assured strict action against all those responsible for the girl’s death, which her parents claimed was due to trauma and shock following the ragging.
Oindrila Das, 10, a Class 5 student of Christ Church School in Dum Dum on Kolkata’s northern outskirts, died on Wednesday a week after she was allegedly locked up inside the school toilet by some of her seniors who demanded money from her. Parents and guardians ransacked the school demanding the arrest and removal of principal Helen Sarkar, alleging negligence and inaction on her part.
With the agitation streching late into the evening warranting heavy police deployment, Sarkar not only apologised publicly for the incident and assured strict action, but later tendered her resignation which was read out by police. But the move failed to pacify the protestors as ‘the resignation was written on a plain paper which has no value’.
Police had a torrid time controlling the protestors and their repeated pleas to calm down failed to have any impact.
The siege was later lifted after Sarkar formally put down her papers. Meanwhile, the victim’s uncle Alokesh Das said, ‘The chief minister today called up Oindrila’s mother and expressed shock and grief over the girl’s death, and assured proper action’.
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