NEW DELHI: A crowd gathered outside a municipal school in Prem Nagar of north Delhi on Thursday and pelted stones at the teachers and staff after they stopped distributing free ration. When the civil defence volunteers and security personnel posted at the school failed to disperse the mob, police were called to control the crowd.
No loss or injuries were reported in the incident. The school is one of the 600 temporary dry ration distribution centres set up in view of coronavirus crisis in the city.
According to government officials, principal of the school stopped ration distribution for a day to update records, which were to be sent to the food and supplies department. "The school principal decided to stop ration distribution for a day and a proper notice was pasted at the main gate of the school a day in advance. However, a large number of people gathered in the morning. When the staff tried to reason with them, they started hurling bricks," said the official.
Another episode of manhandling of school staff was reported on Monday during ration distribution at a school in Tigri in South Delhi. Similar incidents of crowd mismanagement and manhandling took place at municipal schools in Adarsh Nagar, Mangolpuri, and Sultanpuri earlier.
The fresh incident of violence on Thursday triggered outrage with North MCD, which has shot off a letter to secretary cum commissioner, F&S department to resolve the issues faced by the municipal staff at ration distribution duty.
"Our Deputy Commissioners have been asking district magistrates for security. After today’s incident, I have asked additional commissioner (education) to write to the secretary of the department about the issues being faced by the teachers on ration duty. Sometimes, more coupons are issued but less ration is provided," said North Delhi municipal commissioner Varsha Joshi. (Joshi was transferred on Thursday evening.)
Jai Prakash, standing committee chairman of NMC said that he would also write to Delhi government to provide adequate security to municipal teachers. A senior official of F&S department said the matter would be looked into and resolved soon.