Students protest at the school on Tuesday. (Nantu Dey)

Raiganj, June 10: A group of students of Bindol High School today drove out the headmaster from the premises after about 50 quintals of rice meant for the mid-day meal scheme were found rotting in the storeroom.

The incident came to light two days after 12.5 quintals of rice meant for the same scheme were dumped in a pond near Saheb Mohammed High School in Cooch Behar’s Rashidanga.

The students of Bindol school led by the Raiganj block unit of the Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of the Congress, locked the gate from inside and shouted slogans against headmaster, Bishnu Dayal Agarwala. They also boycotted classes today.

Stench had been emanated from the school storeroom where 12-14 sacks of rice were kept. Tapan Roy, a Class VI student, said they had not been served mid-day meal during the past one year, nor had they been given rice to take home.

On May 26, the students were up in arms against Agarwala after he had refused to promote 45 students to Class XII. (The class had 114 students.) Some of the unsuccessful students had then punched and kicked the headmaster leading to his hospitalisation.

The secretary of the school managing committee, Narayan Chandra Roy, alleged that they had been insisting Agarwala on distributing mid-day meals to the students. “But the headmaster had never bothered to heed our advice. It is because of him that about 50 quintals of rice have gone rotten.”

Roy said he had brought the matter to the notice of the district inspector (DI) of schools and gave him a 48-hour deadline for taking action against Agarwala. “If no action is taken by then, we shall never allow the headmaster to enter the school.”

Agarwala, however, claimed that he had stopped serving mid-day meal after consulting the managing committee. “Many teachers had complained to him that serving cooked food was hampering studies in the school. Sensing trouble, all of them are targeting me now,” he said.

Tapan Kumar Basu, the DI of schools, said he has ordered a probe and summoned the headmaster.

The district secretary of the All Bengal Teachers’ Association, Bipul Moitra, said allowing the rice meant for mid-day meal to rot was a “criminal offence.” He demanded action against those responsible for it.