The associations shutdown the schools in the district after the authorities concerned remained reluctant to take action against teachers who allegedly thrased Mukesh Mishra, a teacher at the DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati School in Lalitpur on the issue of salary. According to ANTO, Mishra had lodged a complaint at the Lalitpur District Police Office and District Administration Office on June 14. [break]
Mishra was allegedy thrashed by Vice-principal Ram Chandra Khanal and Prashant Samal when he had gone to ask his salary last Friday.
“The school management has not held my salary of the last month. As my wife is seriously ill, I went to talk with Vice-principal Khanal about my salary issue. He spoke rudely and said he could not help me,” said Mishra.
When he threatened of committing suicide if the school did not provide him the salary, Samal grabbed his hands, while Khanal banged his head on the wall, Mishra said.
According to him, the teachers of the school misbehaved with him as he had shown moral support to the protest by teachers´ associations after the DAV school had dismissed around 21 teachers from the job accusing them of conspiring against the school administration.
However, Khanal denied the accusations.
For the last several months, the tension has been running high between ANTO and the DAV school administration on various issues. “We did not thrash him. He banged his head on the wall himself,” claimed Khanal.
Likewise, Samal said Mishra had been spreading terror in the school saying he would commit suicide if he did not get salary. “We are also a teacher like him. Why would we thrash him?” he said.
On April 1, the ANTO and ANNISU-R had signed a five-point agreement with the DAV school at the Education Ministry after the school management expressed commitment to reinstate 21 teachers it had dismissed earlier and to abide by the existing Education Act and teachers´ code of conduct.
Gun Raj Lohani, president of the ANTO, said the teacher has been victimized by the school administration. “Mishra was fine when he went to meet Khanal. But when he came out, he had injury on his head. He was manhandled,” he claimed.
According to him, the school is yet to provide salaries to the teachers who were reinstated following the agreement. Likewise, the school has not assigned classes to the teachers.
The ANTO said the associations will announce its next protest program tomorrow.
However, the police informed that they tried to settle the issue but the victim and the accused refused to resolve the issue under the supervision of the police.
Around 40,000 students were affected as a total of 324 private and 198 community schools remained closed in Lalitpur.
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