Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has warned schools in the state to take the ban on corporal punishments seriously. Buddhadeb, while tabling a statement on the suicide by La Martiniere School student Rouvanjit Rawla in the Assembly on Thursday, said that many school still practiced corporal punishment.
The Chief Minister warned schools that from now on the state government would be keeping a close watch on errant schools and take action. He said that 14-year-old Rouvanjit was caned by La Martiniere School principal Sunirmal Chakrabarty on February 12, 2010 and the boy committed suicide a few days latter, according to a complaint lodged with the police by his father, Ajay Rawla.
The principal reportedly summoned Rouvanjit for violating class discipline and wrote a note on his diary asking his guardians to come and meet him in the school, said Buddhadeb.
"Occurrence of such incidence leads us to believe that school authorities and some teachers do not treat this matter with importance," said Buddhadeb.
He said that schools should ensure no form of intimidation was being meted out to students. He added that state government had issued circulars to school inspectors and school authorities to create awareness.
The charges are being investigated by the Kolkata Police and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
He also added that a three-member team which was allegedly authorised by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development is being investigated into. The three-member team had claimed that they were authorised by the HRD Ministry to look into the suicide by Rouvanjit and alleged caning of students at La Martiniere. They had also sought a report from the school.
But the HRD Ministry had issued a statement that they had not authorised any team to investigate the incident. A suo moto case was registered by Kolkata Police to investigate the team.
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