BENGALURU: A group of miscreants has vandalized a government school in Lingarajapuram recently and also stole the CCTV cameras along with a computer and hard disk. The headmistress has filed a complaint in this regard.
According to the teachers, drug addicts have become a menace. The school is still under construction and some youths come there frequently, take drugs and create a nuisance, according to the construction labourers.
Banaswadi police who have taken up the case to investigate whether the miscreants came to steal the camera or they had some other motive.
According to the complaint filed by V Varalakshmi, 49, headmistress, Government Kannada Primary and Higher Primary School, some miscreants have broken the glass panes and windows of four classrooms in the ground floor and burst crackers in the classrooms on October 29.
Varalakshmi told police that teachers had come to work on October 29 and they locked all the classrooms and went home around 11 am. On October 30, around 9am, when she came to school to open the door, she found the windows broken. When the teachers opened the locks of the classrooms, they found the rooms filled with crackers. The miscreants also had damaged the electric switch board on the premises.
Varalakshmi suspected that miscreants gained entry into the school premises after dark on October 29 and played the mischief.
A group of volunteers who clean the school learnt about the incident, cleaned up the classrooms. Till then children were made to stay in the school ground. Varalakshmi brought the incident to the notice of her higher officials in the Education Department and then to the ward corporator. On visiting the school, the corporator advised Varalakshmi to file a complaint.
On Varalakshmi’s request, the corporator has agreed to deploy a security guard at the school 24X7 and also promised to help them in procuring the cameras again.
Varalakshmi told TNSE, “We had shifted to this new building in July. Earlier the school was run in an old building. The ground floor work is completed and the construction work is on in first floor. Two CCTV cameras were installed and a computer was installed in one of the rooms of the first floor. When we went to check, we found the computer, hard disk and cameras stolen.”
The labourers who stay at the construction site have informed Varalakshmi and other teachers that every evening some youths come to the premises and take drugs and create a nusisance. A couple of times they were chased away by the labourers. On October 29, the labourers had gone to their houses to celebrate Deepavali festival, so there was no one to stop the miscreants.
An investigating officer said, “We have taken up the case of theft under IPC section 379 and mischief causing damage under IPC section 427 and making efforts to nab the miscreants.” “Every day our men on patrolling duty check the school. Whenever we find some youths on the premises, we send them away from there,” the officer added.