Siliguri, May 12: The authorities of Don Bosco School today threatened to close down the institution if “harassment” by student unions and the guardians’ forum continued over the fee hike issue.

“With so much of interference and harassment by the so-called guardians’ forum and political organisations, it is going beyond all limits and infringing into the provisions given by the Constitution for Minority Institutions. With so much of…threats, we apprehend that the safety of the children is at stake and if this continues in this fashion, we have no other option but to close (shutdown) the school,” a media release issued by school principal Father M.A. Joseph read.

Late in the evening, the school authorities and the guardians met and decided to solve the fee hike issue in a “one-to-one” meeting. Earlier, it was decided that a committee set up by the district administration of Jalpaiguri would look into the parents’ grievances.

“We hope to settle the matter before the summer vacation this weekend,” said Sudipto Majumdar, the secretary of the guardians’ forum. The increase in fees by most English-medium schools in and around Siliguri had triggered a flurry of protests among guardians. Various student organisations had also lent their voice to the protest, resorting to strikes and demanding the rollback of the revised fee.

The principal said the Don Bosco Schools (DBS) throughout Bengal have been paying their teachers at par with the faculty in government schools for the past 15 years.

“After the fifth pay commission recommendations, a directive from the founder body of the DBS reached us asking us to implement the new salary scale,” he said.

Subsequently, a proposal to revise the fees was approved by the managing committee and the parent-teacher committee, Father Joseph said in the release.

Today, the school issued a letter again in which parents were told about the revised fee structure. Many guardians felt it was a ploy of the school to make them consent to the hike.

As the Chhatra Parishad demonstrated in front of the school to protest against the letter, vice-principal Father B. Mondal quickly issued another release asking parents to ignore the earlier letter.

Majumdar said: “We don’t want the institution to close down. The DBS authorities should understand that we were in no way related to the student organisations or the initiative taken by the urban development minister.”