Row over school teacher ‘preventing students from wearing tilak’ in UP’s Bijnor: 4 teachers transferred

“The committee report found the charges to be true. As a result, two teachers, Tanveer Ayesha and Usha, have been suspended. Another teacher, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, and the acting principal, Rajendra Kumar, have been denied their annual increment for one year. All four teachers have been transferred to another school. New teachers will be sent to the school soon,” said the DM.

The disciplinary action against Ansari was for allegedly asking Muslim students to offer namaz in a mosque during school hours. Usha has reportedly been accused of removing caps from Muslim students’ head after the row over tilak erupted.

“The teachers were spreading racialism within the school campus, which was a very dangerous sign of polluting young minds, and hence they faced the action,” said Basic Shiksha Adhikari Yogendra Kumar in Bijnor.

Meanwhile, the suspended teacher, Ayesha, claimed that charges against her were fabricated as she never wiped out tilak. “I will plead my innocence with senior officials to clear my service record. I have been teaching in government schools for the last 18 years, and my record is unblemished,” she said.

Trouble started when some school students complained about her behaviour after they went to school with tilak on August 24.

On August 26, parents protested by storming into the school and lodging a complaint with acting principal Kumar, who allegedly did not take any action. The inquiry committee, subsequently formed by the DM, submitted its report on August 31.