3 min readKolkataSep 3, 2014 12:31 PM IST
First published on: Sep 3, 2014 at 12:31 PM IST
The West Bengal government Tuesday accused a section of its employees of committing “sabotage and subversion in order to malign the government” after one of its officials put up a notification on its website directing inspectors of schools in three districts to assemble the students on September 5, the Teachers’ Day, to listen to a live address of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The notification put up by Commissioner of School Education Samir Kumar Bhattacharya directed the inspectors of schools in Nadia, North-24 Parganas and South-24 Parganas districts to assemble tye all the students on September 5 to listen to Modi’s address. The notification put up in the morning was removed in the evening under orders of state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee.
“Kichu lok badmayeshi koreche (some people have played mischief). They are using the internet to malign sabotage and malign the image of the state government,” Chatterjee told The Indian Express.
Earlier, an order issued by Rajarshi Bhattacharya, secretary, ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, dated August 29, asked all states to ensure that children assemble between 2.30pm and 5 pm on September 5 in their respective schools to listen to a TV address of the prime minister and take part in a question and answer session.
Rreferring to the order, Chatterjee said that the state government was not in a position to implement the Centre’s diktat that was passed in a haste. He also said that schools lacked the requisite infrastructure to arrange for the telecast. He said the state government will go ahead with its own programmes to celebrate the Teachers’ Day.
Reached for comments, Commissioner of School Education Samir Kumar Bhattacharya, said: “I am not going to make any comments in this regard”. Quite expectedly, his note created a confusion among the school heads. “We were wondering why this note was issued for only three districts. We were expecting that a similar notification would be issued for other districts too,” Pradip Basu, principal of Kolkata’s Hindu School, told The Indian Express.
Echoed Papiya Singh Mahapatra, principal Begum Shakhawat school of Kolkata. “We have not received any order, so we will have our own programmes,” Mahapatra said. On Teachers’ Day, the main function of the state government will be held at Netaji Indoor Stadium of Kolkata. It will be presided over by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
About 100 teachers from across the state will be given ‘Shiksha Ratna’ award by the state government. For the first time this year a few schools will be given awards for excellence in imparting education.
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