Around 300 protesters held a massive protest outside the district magistrate’s office, stalled the traffic and even complained of being lathi-charged.
About 300 parents from Ghaziabad held a massive protest outside the District Magistrate’s office on April 26 regarding the tussle with private schools over fee hikes, unexplained charges and regularisation of NCERT books.
Protesters demanded that Nidhi Kesarwani, the DM, interact with them directly. They refused to cooperate until the DM met them. Shweta Mishra, a protester, said, “Why is the DM not meeting us? Until she talks to us, we will not end the protest.”
Holding banners that read “Save us from this exploitation,” “Implement the Gujarat model in Ghaziabad” and “Yogi Ji, save us from education mafias,” parents also stalled the traffic. The traffic on the route towards Hapur-Chungi intersection outside the collectorate was affected for more than three hours. To alleviate the situation, traffic diversion had to be effected from Old Bus Stand route.
Some protesting parents also complained of lathi-charge by the police. “We were outside the collectorate since 11.30 am and assembled at Hapur Chungi intersection to block traffic after the DM refused to meet us. Suddenly, police constables started manhandling and beating parents. They tried to chase us away. Some women protesters were beaten up by female constables,” said Shanti Devi, a parent. The DM, however, confirmed that there was a scuffle but ruled out lathi-charge.
A meeting with representatives of 13 schools scheduled to be held on April 26 by the DM also could not take place as parents objected to the small number of schools called for the meeting. “We will not let this meeting take place as the fee hike issue is common to all of us here, who are from over 25 schools of Ghaziabad,” said Rajiv Kumar, a protesting parent.
The protest continued until 4 pm when Salmantaj Patil, SP (City), intervened and called an emergency meeting with the DM and Deepak Kumar, SSP, at the Police Lines.
When City Spidey spoke to Kesarwani in the evening, she said, “We have just convened a meeting with the parents and have asked them to be patient. The committee that was formed is working. I spoke to the district inspector of schools (DIOS) and we have instructed all the schools to not charge any late fee, annual charges or development charges, and that parents will deposit the old fees without any additional charges. The schools have said that they would like to wait for the committee’s decision on May 11 and not accept any cheques from the parents at the moment.”
“Some parents complained about their children being ill-treated by the school authorities. We told them that we won’t allow any discrimination. We heard their grievances and told them that a meeting between parents, school authorities and representatives of the administration had taken place recently. A 20-day period had been given to the schools to present a justification of any hiked charge and facilities corresponding to them. If the schools fail to offer a convincing justification for any of the hikes, they will not be allowed to impose the same on parents and will be directed to accept fee under the old structure,” she said.
The DM also said that some people among the protesters hampered communication between the administration and the parents by presenting the scenario in a bad light. "Such people have become self-styled leaders who do not even have children of their own. They were trying to manipulate the parents, but things are in control now," she added.
Meanwhile, parents of children studying in Amity School, Sector 1, Vasundhara, also held a protest outside of the school premises on the morning of April 26. The protest was held after cheques not covering annual charges were rejected by the school authority on the grounds that they had not received any notice from the DM in this regard.
