Siliguri, Feb. 11: Parents of three girls studying in Nirmala Convent have filed a police complaint alleging that the school has threatened them to clear the arrears of their wards or face consequences.

Gautam Paul and Ganesh Paul, both residents of Arabindapally here, yesterday lodged the complaint with Bhaktinagar police station (GDE No. 636 dated 10.02.10). “Today around 3.45pm, we were threatened by the school over the phone that if we do not pay the fees, we would face problem as far as the studies and exams of our children are concerned,” read the complaint.

“Following the call, we have become mentally upset and our children, too, are frightened to go to school,” the parents wrote in the joint complaint.

Nirmala Convent is one of the five English-medium schools in town accused of increasing fees exorbitantly. Repeated attempts to contact the authorities failed today.

Sandeepan Bhattacharjee, president, the Guardians’ Forum of North Bengal, described the alleged call by the school as “sheer unethical”. “We want police and the administration to take steps as this is the third instance in the past fortnight where a student or a guardian has been pressured by the schools to pay the hiked fees.” Similar allegations were raised against Don Bosco School and Auxilium Convent.

A high-level meeting held in the presence of two deputy directors of state education department here on December 16 decided that no school could force a student or his/her parents or physically or mentally torture any student for not paying the hiked fees till February 20 when a decision would be arrived at.

Meanwhile, following a letter from Bhattacharjee in which he mentioned about the alleged harassment of students by Don Bosco School on January 27, the subdivisional officer of Jalpaiguri has written to principal M.A. Joseph.

“The allegations appear to be extremely serious and administration may be compelled to act promptly if it is found that your school authority is disobeying the spirit of the resolution...” Nabakumar Burman, the SDO, has written on February 9. “The undersigned has failed to comprehend how the school authority has acted on its own volition when a high level meeting was organised by the state government and some specific resolutions were adopted there. Therefore, it is again to request you to comply with the direction of the state government in letter and spirit….”