A joint meeting of various educational organizations held on Monday in Mahendranagar called for the indefinite closure of all public and private schools from Tuesday. [break]
“We had issued an ultimatum for the local administration to take action against all the vandals by Monday evening,” said Shyam Singh Mauni, President of National Private and Boarding Schools´ Organization, Nepal (N-PABSON), Kanchanpur. “As the administration did not take any decision, we had to call for the closure of schools.”
On Sunday, members of All Nepal National Independent Student Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) had vandalized Florida International School and Prabhat Bidya Niketan in Mahendrangar. Even on Monday, all schools were closed in protest.
Six different organizations including teacher unions have demanded that the government take strict action against those involved in the vandalism. “It is a condemnable act to vandalize the schools,” said Lal Mani Poudel, Kanchanpur district president of Nepal Teachers´ Union. “If the vandals are not penalized, then the state of impunity will grow.”
According to Nisha Bhatta, principal of Florida International, the ANNISU-R members vandalized the schools after their requests for hefty amounts of ´donation´ were turned down. “They had asked for Rs 50,000 for their national convention to be held in Kathmandu,” said Bhatta. “We gave them only Rs 10,000. So, they became angry.”
A written complaint has been filed against Chandra Kanta Bhatta, president of the ANNISU-R, Kanchanpur, Gokarna Chanda and Dasarath Bhandari for allegedly vandalizing two schools. Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police (SP) Binod Sharma has said that he has mobilized five police teams to nab the vandals.
Meanwhile, a member of ANNISU-R on Monday vandalized a language-teaching institute in Dharan.
According to Rajan Kumar Shrestha, owner of the institute, Ram Bahadur Rai, Mahendra Multiple Campus Dharan Unit president of the ANNISU-R, smashed all the glasses, a filter and a sofa when his request for donation was turned down.
“Earlier, I had given him Rs 2,000 as donation for the district-level convention of ANNISU-R. Today, he again came to my office, asking for another Rs 2,000 for the national convention of ANNISU-R,” Shrestha told Republica on Monday. “When I refused to give him money, he went berserk.”
Prahlad Raut, coordinator of Kochila State Committee of ANNISU-R, said that Rai´s act is against the policy of the organization. “We´re saddened to see some of our friends going berserk after being denied donation,” said he. “We´ll look into the matter and take action against Rai if he is found guilty.”
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