Schools, colleges in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Gurdaspur closed today

Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, August 12

All educational institutes in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur will remain closed on Tuesday due to the bandh call over the demolition of Guru Ravidas temple by Dalit organisations and Sant Samaj.

In Gurdaspur, all government and private schools, falling within the municipal limits of the city, have been ordered to be closed by Deputy Commissioner Vipul Ujwal on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Patiala administration said there was no need for a holiday as situation was largely under control.

Patiala DC Kumar Amit said they have made ample arrangements and security has been placed in the city.

No holiday was announced for schools by the administration in Nawanshahr.

In Amritsar, no official school holiday has been announced as per the authorities of the District Education Department. However, some of the private schools will remain shut.

DEO Muktsar said schools will be open tomorrow and full dress rehearsal for the I-Day function will be performed.

However, DAV College in Malout town has declared a holiday, a professor said.

In Ludhiana, majority of schools (including private ones) have declared a holiday tomorrow. Pavilion Mall will also remain closed till 4 pm.

In a meeting of the Joint Action Committee of unaided colleges chaired by Ashwani Sekhri, it had been decided to keep all the private unaided colleges of Punjab closed tomorrow, said Dr Anshu Kataria, spokesman of the JAC.

Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar, Varinder K Sharma has ordered the closure of all government, private and aided schools and colleges of the district so that the students are not inconvenienced.

Schools have been ordered to be closed in Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala too. Full dress rehearsal for Independence Day function, which was scheduled for tomorrow too has been put off to Wednesday

Meanwhile, keeping in view the bandh call for tomorrow, the Punjab School Education Board has postponed the Class X and XII supplementary exams scheduled for August 13.

The Class X maths exam and Class XII exams of political science, business studies and physics have been postponed.

Swarnjeet Kaur, District Education Officer (S), said the PSEB had postponed the exams scheduled for tomorrow.

With the bandh call getting support of the state government, it is likely to throw normal life out of gear.

Calling the action over the historical shrine a part of the RSS agenda, Cabinet ministers Charanjit Singh Channi and Aruna Chaudhary on Monday announced that the state government would extend full legal and financial support to the SC community for filing review petition against the order of the apex court to demolish Guru Ravidas temple in New Delhi.

The ministers along with Lok Sabha MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh and MLAs Raj Kumar Chabbewal and Sushil Kumar Rinku, who were part of a five-member committee constituted by the Punjab chief minister to meet the religious and political representatives of the community and formulate a comprehensive strategy to resolve the issue, held a meeting with representatives of the SC community here at the District Administrative Complex.

The ministers, while expressing pain and anguish over the demolition of the temple in New Delhi, said the Punjab Government, led by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, would support them.

Both the ministers said if the community agreed, the state government was ready to bear the entire expenses for the legal battle to rebuild the temple.

The ministers said the state government was ready to contribute or fully bear the expenditure for the reconstruction of the temple at the same place.

They said Chief Minister Capt Amarinder had talked to Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to seek re-allotment of the same site, which reportedly belongs to the Delhi Development Authority, to enable the community to reconstruct the temple along with the sarovar.

They said the chief minister had also extended all legal and financial assistance to the community to take the matter forward and rebuild the demolished structure at the same place.

Condemning the incident, the ministers said the state government would support the struggle of the SC community to get back the land for the temple and get it reconstructed at the earliest. They asked the representatives to ensure that the struggle was peaceful.

Meanwhile, during the meeting a unanimous resolution was passed to condemn this incident.

The resolution pledged to wage a peaceful battle for regaining the land for the temple, thereby ensuring its reconstruction.

On the occasion, Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma, Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar and Senior Superintendent of Police Navjot Singh Mahal urged the representatives to exercise restraint and peace during the protest.