NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Terming the holding of the political meetings by the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch as well as the rebel faction of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the school premises as “illegal and unethical”, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Monday said the government has taken a serious view of these activities, and would deal with the same with an iron hand, especially if it receives a related complaint from a parent or a member of the public.
“The government ignored such meetings for a while, however now that their meetings in the school premises are discussing even setting up of a political party, the matter has become quite serious,” Parsekar, who also holds the education portfolio added.
The BBSM and the rebel faction of the RSS had both recently held a couple of meetings at the K B Hedgewar School at Cujira Educational Complex to decide on the formation of a political group to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party at the 2017 state assembly election on the medium of instruction issue.
Earlier, the rebel RSS group, to display its show of strength, had also organised a meeting of its cadres in the premises of the same school, where the chief of this group, Subhash Velingkar had asked around 2,000 cadres to don the role of mythological Lord Narasimha and defeat the BJP at the forthcoming assembly elections.
The Chief Minister said that besides the Cujira-based school, the premises of the Porvorim-based Vidya Prabodhini High School, is also being used for similar purpose.
“And then the human resources linked to these schools that is teachers and parents, especially those connected with parent-teachers association, are being forced to attend the public meetings so as to increase the headcount,” he added, stating that this goes against the education rules.
The Chapter IV namely ‘Recognition of Schools’ of the Goa Education Rules, 1986 mentions that “the school buildings or other structures or the grounds should not be used during the day or night for commercial or residential purposes (except for the purpose of resident of any employee of the schools), or for communal, political or non-educational activity of any kind whatsoever.”
“Both the schools, whose premises are being misused by these groups, have performed exceptionally well in the field of education, and earned a name for themselves,” the Chief Minister observed, stating that the government therefore feels uneasy while considering action against these schools.
“But then such a thing should not set a precedent, and more importantly, the schools should not be allowed to be misused for the purpose other than education,” he maintained, noting that a complaint against these schools, for violating the education rules, could see the government taking action against them.