JAJPUR: Students of Manibhadra Nodal Upper Primary School at Bainsiria village in Jajpur district’s Bari block staged a protest at their school on Tuesday, demanding the reinstatement of their suspended headmaster, Prasanta Kumar Sethy.
Sethy was suspended over allegations of lapses and dereliction of duty relating to disruption of PM POSHAN programme in the school and non-maintenance of the nutrition scheme’s food testing register.
Bari block education officer (BEO) suspended the headmaster in exercise of powers conferred under clause (a) of sub- rules (1) of Rule 12 of the Odisha Civil Services (classification, control and appeal) Rules, 1962. The suspension came last Saturday, effectively putting the headmaster out of action on Monday.
Agitated over the suspension, more than 150 students of the school staged the protest and boycotted classes. They demanded immediate withdrawal of the suspension and insisted he was innocent.
“A local SHG assigned to prepare and serve mid-day meals to students under the PM POSHAN scheme used to provide poor quality food to the students of our school. Despite appeals to provide better quality food, the SHG concerned did not change its habit following which our headmaster brought it to the notice of the higher authorities.
Enraged over this, the SHG stopped preparing midday and blamed our headmaster for the disruption of food preparation. Our headmaster has been suspended without any fault,” said Anuradha, a student. Students said this has been a problem for a while, but the situation got heated last week.
“We will intensify the agitation if our demand is not met,” said Anuradha.
A senior education official assured that steps would be taken to resolve the matter.