The district education department of North Dinajpur and the administration have served show-cause notices to the authorities of a state-aided high school in the district for cancelling an examination without prior notice because of a public meeting organised by the Trinamool Congress on the campus on Monday.
A source said actor and MP Dev joined a road show in Islampur on Monday to support Kanaialal Agarwala, the district Trinamool president, who is contesting from the seat.
Dev reached Dalkhola High School, in the Karandighi Assembly constituency, around 2.30pm to address a public meeting in support of Gautam Paul, the Trinamool candidate from the seat.
“On one hand, arrangements were made for the public meeting on the ground. On the other hand, the police personnel deployed for the meeting reached the school on Sunday night and occupied six classrooms,” said a source.
“The school authorities were left with insufficient space to conduct exams for 541 students, which were scheduled in the second half,” the source added.
The school authorities cancelled the second-half examinations without any notice. Hundreds of students of Classes VI, VII, and VIII who were supposed to sit for their third-language exams could not write their papers.
“We were not informed earlier. I travel about four kilometres to reach the school, and I learned that the exam had been cancelled after I arrived yesterday (Monday). Thanks to heavy crowding around the venue, I had to wait near the rally site until it concluded,” said Rani Fatema, a Class VII student.
Sukumar Biswas, the headmaster, said the school’s managing committee granted permission for the rally.
“As the security personnel occupied some of the classrooms, it was impossible to conduct exams for all the students,” he said.
Debashish Samaddar, the district inspector of schools (higher secondary), said such an incident “should not have happened.”
“I have asked the headmaster to submit a detailed report,” he said.
The BDO of Karandighi has also sought a written explanation from the school authorities regarding the decision to allow the rally and cancel exams, said an official in the block administration.
Opposition parties, including the CPM and BJP, have condemned the incident and filed complaints with the Election Commission (EC).
“The Election Commission grants permission for public meetings and the administration is functioning under it. Only the EC officials can comment on the issue,” said Arindam Sarkar, a district vice president of Trinamool.