School principal pays for villagers protest, suspended

RAJKOT: The state government on Saturday suspended Prakash Davda, principal of the school in Ambardi village of Amreli, where villagers had protested against demonetization during Gunotsav, a drive to assess the quality of education in state-run schools.
People of Ambardi village in Savarkundla taluka had opposed ‘Gunotsav’ sitting in classrooms with placards saying that said ‘Teach us how to live without money’, when government officials came to assess the students.Moreover, villagers also did not sent their children to school, instead they sent them to banks to stand in queues to withdraw cash. Government officers who had gone to evaluate the kids had to return back as no children attended the school.
Davda has been suspended for not following orders from his higher office to file a police complaint against the villagers, who had protested in the classrooms and for obstructing school work. However, Davda did not file a police complaint. He was, therefore, suspended for dereliction of duty and not adhering to orders from the higher office.
During suspension, Davda has been posted at a primary school in Chanch village of Rajula taluka.
Deepak Malani, from Ambardi village, who had led the villagers in the protest said, “We were frustrated with the government’s poor management of cash supply in the village bank. Therefore, we protested peacefully during the Gunotsav,” adding, “But a desperate government made school principal Devda scapegoat and suspended him over frivolous reasons.”
He further alleged that senior government officials pressurized the district primary education department in Amreli to lodge a complaint against villagers and asked Davda to lodge an FIR against them.
“Then, Devda sought explanation as under which law he should file an FIR against a peaceful protest as we did not damage anything in the school or obstruct duty. This did not go down well with the higher officials,” alleged Malani.
“After his suspension, we met senior education officers in Amreli but they told us that it was because of government’s pressure that they have suspended him. This is absurd,” he added.
Ambardi has a population of over 8,000 with three banks including that of the country’s biggest lender State Bank of India.
TOI tried to contact Amreli district primary education officer B K Patel. However, he was not reachable.