The hostel warden and five other authorities of a residential school were transferred and given show-cause notices on Wednesday, January 18 — two days after 61 girl students of the school walked 17 km at night and complained about atrocities metted out to them by the authorities of Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district.
An official said that besides the warden, four teachers and the accountant of Kasturba Gandhi Girls School at Khuntpani were also served show-cause notices and transferred, while the night guard was removed, as stated in a report by PTI.
The Class XI students of the school sneaked out of their hostel at night and reached the collectorate in Chaibasa at around 7 am on Monday, January 16 to lodge a complaint with Deputy Commissioner Ananya Mittal, who had asked District Superintendent of Education (DSE) Abhay Kumar Shil to look into the matter.
Students' complaints
The students told the DSE that they were forced to eat stale food, clean toilets and students of lower classes were compelled to sleep on the floor on just mats in the prevailing cold and they were beaten up by the warden if they protested.
They also alleged that the warden compelled the students to lie to senior officials when they visited the school for inspection. It was found during the investigation that neither the guard nor the teachers were aware that 61 girls were not in the hostel on Monday morning till the district authorities contacted them after receiving the complaints, as per the PTI report.
Teachers and an accountant from other schools of the district have already joined in their places, District Education Officer Lalan Singh said. “We have served show-cause notices and transferred the erring warden, four contractual teachers and the accountant while removing the guard following the complaints of the students,” Singh said. They were asked to reply to the notices within 24 hours.
Singh said a two-member committee was formed to probe whether a few girls instigated others to lodge the complaint that way.
