Panel row: Teacher beats up school in-charge, colleague in Talwara

A dispute over the election of the school management committee (SMC) in a local government school turned into a scuffle between teachers. A teacher beat up the school in-charge and her colleague. Seeing the matter getting worse, the school in-charge called the police. The police took preventive measures under sections 126 and 170 of BNSS against the accused teacher. A video of the scuffle captured in the CCTV camera installed on the school premises went viral on social media.

The case is of Government Model High School, Sector 2, Talwara. The election of the SMC was held on Monday. According to sources, the scuffle between teachers is related to the election of the SMC. The accused teacher was nominated last year as a member, but she was not elected this time. The sources said dispute over the formation of the newly elected committee was the main reason for the scuffle. The accused teacher first slapped the school in-charge, then dragged a fellow teacher, who was taking attendance, by holding her hair and slapped her too. Investigating officer Sikander Singh Rana said on basis of school in-charge’s complaint, action was taken against the accused teacher and she was presented in the Mukerian SDM’s court.

The school in-charge, Nirmal Chand, said as per instructions of the Education Department, a panel was first constituted for the selection of the SMC committee members. Later, the SMC was selected impartially by the panel. The SMC committee has 12 members nominated from among guardians of students, two other members are selected under the guidelines of the government. Two members are school teachers.

District Education Officer (SE) Lalita Arora termed the incident as unfortunate. She said a two-member committee would investigate the incident.