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Bankura, Feb. 4: A primary teacher has lodged a police complaint accusing the Bankura primary school council chief of slapping him after he pointed out that a candidate she had recommended for admission was overaged.
Swarup Karmakar, who was today handling pre-nursery admissions at Bankura Primary School, has written in his complaint that Rinku Bandopadhyay slapped him when he pointed out that the candidate she had recommended for Class I was more suited for Class II.
“He pointed out that the candidate was over 7 years old and was more suited for Class II, the admissions for which would take place on Friday. But the chairperson, who was already agitated, slapped Karmakar. He fell down. The headmistress, Sulekha Choudhury, was in the room,” said Abhijit Mukhopadhyay, the state president of the Left-backed All Bengal Primary Teachers’ Association (ABPTA), of which Karmakar is a member.
Karmakar, who is physically challenged, suffered no injury when he fell to the ground.
Bandopadhyay said that under the right to education act, children between 6 and 14 have to be compulsorily admitted to school. “On that basis, we recommend admissions to primary schools. The guardian of the girl called me up this morning and said the school was creating problems.”
She added that the teachers were misbehaving with the parents and even quoted them as saying “if Rinku Bandopadhyay writes a recommendation, that doesn’t mean we have to admit the candidate”.
“I felt that, being the chairperson of the council, I needed to go to the school and sort things out. But there, the teachers misbehaved with me and Karmakar spoke very rudely.”
The chairperson of the Trinamul-run council, however, denied having slapped the teacher. “All this is a drama by the CPM,” she said.
The Left-backed ABPTA took out a protest rally in the evening, demanding that the chairperson be arrested.
The district Trinamul Congress secretary, Arup Khan, said: “The chairperson had gone to the school on the basis of a complaint but she did not slap any teacher. All this is a ploy by the CPM to malign the chairperson.”
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