6-year-old boy spills beans on illegal tuition classes in Batala

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Batala, April 27

A six-year-old school boy, apparently irked over his parents’ decision to force him to attend tuition classes, vented his anger by guiding the cops to houses where the lucrative business was being carried out even as all such activity has been banned during the ongoing curfew.

DSP (Crime) Gurdeep Singh and his team were patrolling the area near Thathiari gate when the officer started questioning a father-son duo as to why they were roaming the streets.

The father was holding the arm of his son and suddenly the latter broke away and started spilling the beans. He led the DSP to one house, then another and after two hours the police had managed to identify several houses where teachers were holding classes in violation of social distancing norms.

SSP Opinderjit Singh Ghuman said the police had prepared a list of such houses, and teachers, and would book them under Section 188 IPC (disobeying government orders).

“This is a serious offence,” he said.

“I was patrolling the street when I saw a boy and his father. When I questioned the latter, he said they were going to buy groceries. However, I noticed the son was feeling a bit uneasy. Suddenly, he yanked his father’s arm, broke free, and told us that his father was bringing him back home after he had attended a tuition class in the adjoining street. When I asked him where was the house where he went to take tuitions, he calmly guided us there. Not only this, he also told us that he knew many other houses where such activity was taking place,” said the DSP.

SSP Ghuman added that normally these classes were held in crowded rooms where nobody wore masks.

“This, in itself, is an infringement of curfew rules,” he said.

“Even social distancing rules are not followed. On the one hand we are making fervent appeals asking residents to stay indoors while on the other hand some unscrupulous people are taking undue advantage of the situation by clandestinely holding classes. We have drawn up lists and will book the offenders soon,” he added.

The tuition business is quite lucrative in the city.

Among all cities of Gurdaspur district, Batala plays host to the maximum number of schools.

Word soon spread to the neighbouring towns of Dera Baba Nanak, Fatehgarh Churian, Qadian, Naushera Majha Singh and Gurdaspur where teachers, fearing reprisals from the cops, were quick to wind up classes.