Odisha School Mourns Former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee's Death

A headmaster from Balasore landed in trouble for informing his school teachers about the demise of Vajpayee, asking them to close the school.

BALASORE: In June Jharkhand Education Minister Neera Yadav was seen paying homage to former president APJ Abdul Kalam by offering floral tributes when he was alive.

And now a primary school headmaster of Odisha's coastal Balasore district has landed himself in trouble for allegedly informing his school teachers about the demise of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and asking them to close the school.

Sources said the students and teachers of Budakhunta upgraded primary school in Oupada block of Balasore district on Friday conducted a meet mourning the death of Ex-Prime Minister and closed the school after headmaster Kamalakanta Das informed them over phone that Vajpayee had died.

The incident however came to the fore after a group of locals brought it to the notice of the district Collector and demanded stringent action against the headmaster. The Collector in turn instructed District Project Coordinator (DPC) of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan to conduct a probe and submit the report by Monday.

According to the locals, that day Das was attending a training programme of teachers in another school at Santaragadia from where he rang up a Siksha Sahayak of the school Prafulla Behera and asked him to close the school as the former Prime Minister was no more.

Following the phone call, Behera informed other teachers including assistant teacher Kunjabasini Nayak. Later the teachers and students assembled for a memorial meeting where they paid tributes to the former Prime Minister. The school was closed after the meet and students asked to go home.

As the news spread in the locality, the school committee members and villagers were taken aback. Shocked over the news a school committee member Narendra Das called up the headmaster who admitted to have informed the school teachers after hearing the death news from another teacher during the training programme.

Meanwhile, following the instruction from the Collector, DPC Surendra Prasad Sankhua has conducted a probe and interacted with the teachers. “The teachers admitted to have conducted the meet following the information from the headmaster, who too apologized for his mistake. I have submitted my report to the collector holding Das responsible for the entire episode,” Sankhua said.

Collector Sanatan Mallik assured to take disciplinary action against the erring teacher after going through the enquiry report on Monday. “He will be placed under suspension and if required criminals proceedings will also be initiated against the headmaster,” he added.

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