All is not well at Bidhannagar Municipal School in its silver jubilee year. Even as students file in for examinations at the FE Block institute, some of their parents have moved court against the corporation about the formation of its new managing committee.
The FE Block school is a self-financed one, for which land was handed over by the government 25 years ago for Re 1. It is run by a special constitution and decisions are made by the managing committee comprising nominated members proposed by the civic body, representatives from among teaching and non-teaching staff, and guardians.
The school’s last managing committee had dissolved back in 2019 but a new one could not be formed due to the pandemic. The process resumed a couple of months ago and a major change has been proposed in the list of new committee members.
The civic body has proposed the names of mayor Krishna Chakraborty, mayoral council member in charge of education Rajesh Chirimar and local councillor Banibrata Banerjee as nominees. The fourth nomination is for Suparna Ghosh Pal, councillor of Ward 8 who is a teacher by profession.
The secretary of the outgoing committee was Tulsi Sinha Roy, a mayoral council member of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, and the bone of contention now is that her name is missing from the list. Instead, Banerjee is proposed to be the next secretary.
This has got the goat of some teachers and parents, who, last week put up posters on the school’s gate and walls challenging the inclusion of Banerjee in the committee. They have even moved court challenging the proposal to form the new committee, terming it as illegal.
Trinamul insiders say the agitation was spurred by infighting between Banerjee and Sinha Roy, who is unhappy at being excluded.
A parent, who is part of the protests, said they did not want the formation of a committee where the civic body had sent nominations without holding any meeting with the parents’ body. “This is a unilateral decision and we will not tolerate this. We will continue to protest till the civic officials hold a meeting with us,” said the parent who asked not to be named.
Bhaswati Chakraborty, who has been with the school for 13 years, refused to comment on the guardians’ agitation, as the matter, she pointed out, was sub-judice.
Banerjee said the protesters had no right to interfere in the functioning of the corporation. “Our nominations have been sent in by the corporation. How can a set of parents suddenly start protesting the decision of the civic body? It is an internal matter and the parents should not get involved,” said Banerjee.
Tulsi Sinha Roy reserved her comment. “Rajesh Chirimar, the mayoral council member in charge of education, described the posters put up at the school as extremely unfortunate. “The civic body has the right to nominate four members of the board at its discretion. It is unfortunate that such posters had been put up,” he said.
The Leftist teachers’ forum, All Bengal Teachers Association, has lent its weight behind the new panel. In a letter addressed to the mayor, Snigdhendu Satpati, the head of ABTA’s Salt Lake branch, pointed to the agitation tarnishing the reputation of the school set up during the Left regime. “The mayor has every right to choose four nominees,” he wrote, decrying the slanderous posters put up in Banerjee’s name.