Mainpuri school seeks to eradicate untouchability signs, students take meals together

MAINPURI: Two days after a government school principal was suspended for allegedly making Dalit students wash their dishes and keep them separately after their mid-day meals, all students of the school had their lunch together without any sign of discrimination.

In a bid to obliterate the signs of discrimination against the scheduled caste students, a senior district official rushed to the primary school Dodarpur in Bewar block and held a meeting with the village pradhan, her husband, villagers and parents. The official also prevailed upon the villagers and assured them that no illegal discriminatory practices would be followed in the school.

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"The alleged discrimination with the scheduled caste students of the Dodarpur primary school has been resolved. The school functioned normally today," Basic Shiksha Adhikari Kamal Singh told PTI on Monday. The school principal was suspended and two cooks were sacked following complaints that SC students were being made to wash their mid-day meal dishes and keep them separately from those of others, a senior official had said on Sunday.

Chief Development Officer Vinod Kumar had said the action was taken after village pradhan Manju Devi's husband Saheb Singh filed a complaint on Saturday, alleging that the SC students were being discriminated against at the government primary school in Dodarpur. "On Sunday, Bewar’s Block Development Officer Anupam Shukla rushed to the village and held a meeting with villagers, village pradhan Manju Devi, her husband Saheb Singh and the children's parents. The entire episode was sorted out in an amicable atmosphere," the BSA official said.

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He said, "There is no such complaint or dispute now in the school, and it functioned normally today." Action against the school principal Garima Singh Rajput and cooks were taken on Saheb Singh’s complaint. As part of the protest, many of the villagers did not send their children to the school on Saturday.

The parents of students had also accused the village pradhan and her husband of vitiating the harmonious school atmosphere and claimed that no discrimination of any sort ever took place in the school and all students always had taken their meals collectively, the BSA said.

He, however, said, since the cooks had left the job, the meal was prepared from a nearby school which was taken by all students together. Asked what steps have been taken to arrange new cooks for the school, Singh said the school managing committee is empowered to take action against the erring staff and find new cooks.

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"A departmental inquiry has been initiated against the principal, while the cooks themselves had refused to work," he said. The district administration has dismissed reports of the alleged threat faced by the village pradhan's husband Saheb Singh for raising the issue.

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