Modern High School for Girls has drawn the attention of parents to a problem of “VIP employer’s cars” being parked wherever drivers want to from a “sense of entitlement”.
Devi Kar, the director of the school, told parents in an email that they “expect” parents to give “appropriate instructions” to their drivers.
The school, she says, never had “a VIP culture” and all parents, irrespective of their status, have always followed rules.
The appeal to the parents follows a complaint the school has received, the email says.
“...this complainant claims that some drivers exhibit a sense of entitlement and park their VIP employers’ cars wherever they want to,” the email says.
The mail also says that traffic cops on duty rush to help these drivers who mostly drive “cars with beacons”.
Several parents whom The Telegraph spoke to confirmed the allegation.
“The disappointing part is that the traffic police on duty rush to help these drivers who mostly drive cars with beacons. In their zeal to please the ‘people who matter’, they even shift the ‘No Parking’ signpost,” the email says.
A parent said he had seen school officials standing on the road and urging drivers to keep moving and not wait right in front of the school gate.
“If some cars keep waiting, other cars do not get enough space to move and it leads to more chaos right in front of the school,” the parent said.
The email from the school also says that the drivers of the so-called VIP cars are allowed to break the U-turn rule regularly.
The mail says: “We are proud that we have never had ‘a VIP culture’ at MHS. Our chairperson has told us categorically that her own family members are never to be given preferential treatment. All our parents, irrespective of ‘status’, have observed rules like everybody else.”
“We expect our guardians to give appropriate instructions to their drivers.... I appeal to all parents to help us in this endeavour. We look to you to lead by example,” Kar has written.
The email says children do not learn the right values when they see they are getting “preferential treatment” because of their parents’ position.
When this newspaper called Kar, the Modern High School director, to ask what necessitated such an email, she declined comment.
A school official said: “It is a communication between the school and the parents and it should be left at that.”
An officer in Kolkata police’s traffic department admitted that the allegations in the letter “are all true”.
“Whatever is written in the letter is true. It is common for the VIP cars to flout rules, take U-turns where they are not allowed to and park in places where parking is not allowed,” the officer said.
“VIP cars” are a nuisance at many places in the city, including the Kolkata airport. The Telegraph has published a series of reports highlighting the problems caused by such cars, which remain parked in front of the airport terminal for long durations.
