Girls lock school in Panipat village

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, May 20

Girl students of Government Secondary School at Nangal Kheri village of the district today locked the main gate of the school and staged dharna to demand the school be upgraded to senior secondary level.

The protesting students threatened to start a fast and block the traffic on NH-1 in case their demands were not met within four days.

Earlier, girl students of Class X, along with their parents, help a panchayat in the village and demanded that the school be upgraded. Later, led by Suman Devi, sarpanch, and Kiran Malik, member of the child welfare committee, gathered at the school gate and staged dharna.

They raised slogans against the state government expressed concern regarding the safety of their children.

“Some of the girls have to drop out after Class X because the parents do not want to send us to far away schools,” said Praveen, a girl student.

Suman Devi, sarpanch, said, we have been raising this demand for the last six years but the government ignored it.

Jaidev Sharma, principal of the school, tried to pacify the protesting girls and their parents, but in vain.

“The file to upgrade the school has been sent to the CM by the Education Department,” said Udai Pratap Singh, DEO. The school would be upgraded when it fulfills the norms set by the Education Department, he added.