One arm of the Yogi Adityanath government sealed offices at a women’s postgraduate college here on Friday because another arm had failed to pay the building tax.
As uncertainty loomed over the college annual exams that were to start on Friday but could not, a frustrated principal questioned the BJP-led central government’s“Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” slogan.
“A team from the Nagar Nigam (civic body) sealed my room and the office of the college at 9.45am because our building tax has not been paid since June 2022,” Anuradha Tiwari, principal of the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Government Girls’ Postgraduate College, said.
It’s the state higher education department’s job to pay the building tax for government colleges.
Tiwari said the Nagar Nigam raid came just before the annual exams were to start.
Asked whether this would affect the students’ future, she said it wouldn’t be possible to hold the exams with several key rooms and offices — including the CCTV monitoring room and printer room —locked.
“I don’t understand the meaning of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao slogan,” a distraught Tiwari said.
She said the Nagar Nigam team that barged into the all-girls college had not a single woman member.
“They shoved aside the security guard, came inside without permission, and sealed several rooms. The girls had gathered here to write their examinations,” Tiwari said.
She said the building tax dues amounted to Rs 754,800. “We had received two notices from the Nagar Nigam in the last few months and forwarded them to the higher authorities,” she added.
An official at the higher education department said: “There is a funds crunch because of which the government wants us to generate money from fees and other resources. We will resolve the matter in a day or two.”
A Nagar Nigam official, asking not to be quoted,said: “We are following the orders of the highest authority in the state. We too areunder pressure to generate funds.”
The college is affiliated to Lucknow University. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid its foundation stone on April 14,1997, when he was Lucknow MP and Kalyan Singh was chief minister. Defence minister Rajnath Singh is now the local MP.
