Parents, pupils lock gate over delay in aid

VELLORE: When schools in Tamil Nadu were reopening for the first day on Wednesday after a long summer break, it was an odd day for the government high school in Kannakurukkai near Chengam where students and their parents together locked the school gates protesting against the long delay in disbursal of educational aid for the students.According to Muniappan, a student who passed out of the school in the 2008-09 batch, 40 students who were eligible for educational aid from the state were never given the money. “We asked the headmaster several times about  this, but he always said that it was on the way and postponed it.” After almost two years of waiting for the money to arrive, the parents and police signed a joint petition and handed it over to the Pachal police station on Tuesday morning. Local police received the complaint, but advised them to take the matter to the district education authority. “Even after giving a written complaint to the District Education  Office, we got no response,” lamented Muniappan’s  father.Irked by the continued inaction of officials, the parents and children who predominantly hail from the lower-income group, staged a protest just as the school was set to re-open.Vinod, another student who organised the agitation, said they locked the school only to draw attention of  the officials towards their apathy.  As the result of the agitation, both students and teachers were forced to wait outside the school campus. The school principal,  Christinal Anbazhagi, was unavailable for comment.Within an hour, local police and Tiruvannamalai Chief Educational Officer, Suganya, arrived at the spot and managed to persuade the protesting youth and their parents to open the school gates. CEO Suganya then confirmed that the money has been already allocated to the students and would be made available soon. It was later revealed that the funds had been held up by the President of the local PTA, Kumar, and another person called Chettu. The CEO  assured that the money would be retrieved and  then handed over to the students on June 20 after an enquiry.