Made to wait at school for unpaid fees

According to Prabhakar Kolkamb,father of one of the students,the school authorities told the students not to go home till their parents come and pay the remaining fees.

“I had not paid the fees for three months. There were other such students also whose parents have not paid fees for three or six months. In my case,I had assured them to clear the fees as early as possible. Even after that,the school authorities detained the students,” he said.

Kolkamb said the school authorities should have called the parents. “Detaining girls is inhuman,” he said.

The members of Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS) and the BJP soon went to the school and staged demonstrations against the school authorities.

“The girls were detained by force. Only when we went to the school along with party workers,the school authorities allowed students to leave the school,” said Nitin Bhujbal of BVS.

The BVS and the BJP have demanded resignation of principal Sister Yohana in connection with the incident. When contacted,Sister Yohana refuted the allegations. “The students were not detained. They were told to wait till their parents come and pay the fees. We called up the parents and told them to pay the fees. They were coming one by one,” she said.

She alleged that some local people were behind the incident,as their children could not secure admission in the nursery.

“As the school is reputed,over 200 applications come for limited seats every year.

Many of the children cannot get admission. This year also,many parents cannot get admission for their children. Some of them purposely blew the incident out of proportion,” she said.

A senior school staffer said despite reminders,the parents had not paid fees for months. “Some of them had not paid the fees for the entire year.

A few parents had not even turned up to offer any explaination. Our staff get salaries out of the fees paid by students,but a few parents simply don’t bother to pay.”