Mangaluru: The members of Makkala Hakku Horatagararu Hagu Poshakara Sangha under the leadership of their president Advocate Dinesh Hegde Ulepady staged a short protest in front of DCs office, and then proceeded to DC’s office to submit a memorandum with their demands regarding schools not adhering to RTE norms while enrolling students into their respective institutions.
15 kids from poor families namely- Varshini (5yrs), Srinidhi (6yrs), Shailesh (7yrs), Gautham (7), Jayanth (6), Savarni (5), Rakesh ( 11), Sharath ( 12), Harish ( 5), Kirthi ( 6), Venkata ( 6), Prashanth ( 5), Pradeep ( 5), Thilakraj (7), and Seena (7) were produced before the DC and Dinesh Hegde requested the DC to enroll the students right away by informing the DDPI to do so.
Hegde further said, “Although the schools were not opened today as mentioned earlier, but the government has already planned to hold parambhotsava in all government schools. However, there are several children who have been denied of education and the authorities have failed to identify and enrol the children to schools. To make the district administration aware of the situation, this protest has been held to bring awareness among the management of the various educational institutions, and also to the notice of DC, so that he can make arrangements to enrol these children in different schools as per availability.”
Hegde also said, ” In spite of government’s orders dated 28 February 2015, to check on the huge sum of money collected by these private institutions as fees , the concerned authorities have remained numb on this matter. The administration has failed to form a team to sleuth into practice of collecting huge fees by the schools management. We will not stop our fight till we get justice in this matter. We also demand that the management of schools who have collected excess fees from the parents during their kids enrollment to reimburse the extra money”.
After submitting the memorandum to the DC, Advocate Hegde told the DC that the Sangha would stage the protest until the DDPI comes and assures that these children are enrolled immediately. As per the direction of DC, the DDPI along with DO arrived at the DCs office, and Hegde advised the DDPI to take take the kids into his custody, and that he makes sure that they are enrolled under the 25% free seats quota sanctioned by the government, and also under RTE norms. Hegde also asked the DDPI that before the kids are enrolled in schools, that he should be informed prior to their admission to various schools.
The activists called off the protest after getting strong assurances from the DDPI that he will do the needful within the coming days. Members of the Sangha, Prasanna Ravi, Akshatha Shetty and others joined in the protest.
The man, in white shoes, shirt and pant, has been staging protests outside every important govt. office, with press photographers in tow, since the last 2 weeks. In the instant case, if the 15 children were really not getting admission anywhere, and that includes govt. schools. Then an ordinary visit to the DC, Mr.Ibrahim( a truly good human being and gentleman) would have ensured instant action anyway without the need for any photo sessions or drama ! Perhaps Mr.Hegde would do better with his energies by enrolling students in govt. schools,which are in fact begging for students to be enrolled… Read more »