Police foil attempt by private school owners to gherao CM’s Karnal office

Tribune News Service

Karnal, May 25

Hundreds of private school owners and teachers protested here today seeking the revocation of Rule 134-A, increasing the usage of schoolbuses to 15 years, withdrawal of the decision to increase the bus permit fee to Rs 25,000 from Rs 850, and a CNG station in the NCR,

They assembled in a park in Sector 12 and decided to move towards the CM camp office, due to which a large number of police personnel were deployed there. Raj Kumar, DSP, Ashwini Malik, SDM, tried to pacify them, but they remained adamant to protest outside the camp office. The authorities warned them of arrests following which the protesters handed over the memorandum to Indri SDM Ashwini Malik and threatened to launch “jail bharo agitation” if their demands were not met.

Kulbhushan Sharma, president, Federation of Private Schools and Welfare Association, accused the government of not paying heed to their demands. The government should scrap Rule 134-A, and implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Government should issue a voucher of Rs 2,500 each per month for the students of the economically weaker sections, so that they could get admission in any school, he said.

RS Virk, president, Karnal Independent Schools Association (KISA), said the Chief Minister should resolve the issues at the earliest