Students at the Satyawati School fainted when police used force to control a clash at Western Irrigation Development Sub Division Office in Damauli on the last day to submit tenders for three projects. Police had fired four tear gas shells during the clash. [break]
Principal Tanka Nath Parajuli said students of class four and six, under the age of 13 years, were the worst affected. “They were studying in classes when the smoke of shells that landed at the school gate entered classrooms and they fainted,” Parajuli said. The students were taken to Damauli Hospital for treatment.
Police, however, claimed that the shells were not fired at the school and the smoke was blown into the school due to wind. “The students were affected as the smoke of shells that were fired at the clashing youths who who entered the school,” DSP Ishwari Chapagain said.
He further said that 14 youths -- most of whom are from Bandipur, Dulegauda and Kaski -- were detained during the clash and they would be tried under the Public Offense Act. Police resorted to baton chrge after the youths started pelting stones at each other inside the irrigation office.
The three tenders called by the irrigation office were worth more than Rs 20 million and the 30-day deadline for submitting quotations expired at noon on Tuesday.
“We received just two quotations by the deadline though 10 forms were sold,” said chief of the irrigation office Keshav Raj Baral. Baral said those two bidders would be considered for the three World Bank-funded projects.
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