Manish Sisodia urges L-G Anil Baijal to ensure safety of school teachers

In the backdrop of a recent incident of a teacher being attacked by a mob in a government school, Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia has urged Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to ensure adequate security arrangements at schools.

On Wednesday, a teacher was beaten up by a mob, that broke into the premises of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya (SKV) in north-west Delhi's Narela. "It is a matter of grave concern if teachers are not safe within the premises of their school. Since the Delhi Police comes under the LG, I would request him to ensure that the swift action is taken in this case and adequate security arrangements are made for all government schools in Delhi," Sisodia said in a letter to Baijal.

Referring to the recent alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, in which two MLAs have been arrested, he said, "The Delhi Police has taken no-holds-barred action, including arrests within 24 hours, 50 police officers going for collecting evidence in the matter and the personal presence of the DCP in court to ensure that the accused do not get bail. I would like to request the LG to ensure that the Delhi Police takes the same level of interest in the case of assault on a teacher." "The officers worked till 12 midnight and were working even on Sunday. We will give the report and a detailed one at that. All work will go on," said another officer.

Sisodia said otherwise it would give a message that security of teachers was far less important than that of IAS officers. "It is essential to make them feel that their security was of prime importance to the Delhi Police and its controlling authorities -- the LG and the Ministry of Home Affairs," he said.

He also flagged concern over the regular complaints from teachers in connection with their safety and security. "This was not the first incident of a serious security threat to teachers and last year also, a teacher was stabbed within school premises," Sisodia said.

"There are repeated complaints regarding the safety of female students and teachers at the time of shift change in double shift-schools and several times, the police have committed to send beat constables and PCR vans to schools at the time of shift change but none of this has ever happened," the education minister said.