SHILLONG: The students and staff of Assam Rifles Public School, Laitkor, which is facing the threat of closure from April, will seek the intervention of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh when he arrives at the Assam Rifles headquarters on Monday.
The Assam Rifles had cited paucity of funds as the reason for the move to close down the school but the staff and the students questioned the motive of the Assam Rifles authorities to shut the school in the name of scarcity of funds.
Earlier both the Shillong Bench of the Gauhati High and the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of the staff who sought salaries as per the Sixth Pay Commission, which, however, was not acceptable to the ARPS functionaries resulting in the tussle between the ARPS staff and Assam Rifles leading to the imminent closure of school.
Reacting to the statement made by the Assam Rifles spokesperson, who blamed the staff for the closure of the school, the latter said on Sunday that many parents are aggrieved over the move to re-locate the students from ARPS, but do not want to go public fearing that they may face the wrath of the Army officers who are heading the paramilitary force.
The staff alleged that the civilian parents were blackmailed with the threat of 80% fee hike which compelled them to withdraw their children from the school.
According to the staff, the ARPS management would not have taken such a drastic step if the wards of the army officers were affected. The staff said that the allegation against them that they are unwilling to pay the increased tuition fee is not based on facts.
Despite expressing the willingness to forgo many allowances including SDA, TPT, LTC and sixth pay commission for three years, the staff agreed to pay a tuition fee of Rs 1000 per month ignoring the fact that the staff were promised free education for two children at the time of appointment as per the advertisement floated by the Assam Rifles, they said.
According to the staff, during the discussion held to sort out the problem, the DGAR was allegedly adamant that the staff should pay the fee of Rs 60000 per year in line with civilians with a concession of 20% for the teaching and administrative staff and a concession of 50% for the group D staff.
They also revealed that while the Centre reimburses the minimum tuition fee of Rs 18,000 per year for day scholars, the reimbursement for the boarders is Rs 45,000.
The staff pointed out that another irony was that while the CBSE class XII examination will be getting over on April 7, the school will be closed from April 1.
