Serious affair over playground
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Several reasons can be cited for the rising number of crimes. But a queer one would be that lack of playgrounds can result in a crime!
The Fort police, probing the recent ransacking of the Chalai Boys GHSS, stumbled on the bizarre fact that denial of the school ground to the local youths, who used to play cricket there, was the immediate provocation for the attack.
A cupboard in the staff room was found forced open on Sunday by the school officials. They also found that the amplifier and the microphone stored in the cupboard were missing. As there was a recent confrontation between the school teachers and the local youths over the latter’s use of the school ground, a complaint was lodged by the school authorities with the police pointing the needle of suspicion at the youths.
The complaint said that the teachers and the youths were at loggerheads for long after the former denied permission to the latter to play on the ground.
On Saturday evening, when the youths had entered the ground, the school staff asked them to leave. This led to tension as some of the youths defied the order and began playing there. Finally, the police were called to evict the youths. The school authorities alleged that the attack and destruction of school property were acts of vengeance by the youths and that they were assisted by some notorious criminals of the locality.
But Fort CI V Suresh Kumar said that a case had been registered and the culprits would be nabbed soon. But he refuted the claims of the school officials that the youths who had attacked the school were criminals. ”They were youths of the locality protesting against the school’s decision to not allow them to use the ground. The school officials say that this was the fourth attack on school property. But we haven’t received a single complaint except the present one,” he said.