Taking kids hostage for fee wrong, Kejriwal warns Walled City school

| | NEW DELHI

Taking cognisance on the confinement of Kinder Garten (KG) students for non-payment of tuition fees, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday visited Rabea Girls School in Ballimaran area of the Walled City area and admonished the Principal and said “taking hostage for collecting arrears is wrong.”

“You are a principal. The position has a reputation and high status in society. This is not the way to deal with children. “The way you have treated them is not right. Using students to get dues cleared is wrong. Legal action will be taken against those found guilty but I urge you not to repeat it,” Kejriwal said to Principal of Rabia Public School.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by his deputy Manish Sisodia, who is also the Delhi Education Minister. Ballimaran legislator and Environment Minister Imran Hussain in whose constituency the school exists was also present.

Importantly, a case has been registered and Delhi Government will conduct an inquiry into the incident that took place on Monday.

“Action will be taken against those found guilty,” Kejriwal said.

The school authorities on July 9 locked up over half a dozen students aged four and five years in the school premises after their parents failed to pay their tuition fees.

The school management, including Headmistress Farha Diba Khan, were named in the First Information Report filed under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.

The management was booked on a complaint by Shabeen Hasan who had dropped his two daughters at the school around 7.30 a.m. on Monday. He said when he returned to pick them up after school hours, he could not find them in their classes.

“When I enquired from the staff, I got to know that some minors had been forcibly locked in the school basement for hours without food. The children were let off only after we informed the police,” he said in the FIR. Hasan said that the aggrieved parents had earlier promised to the management they would clear the dues within a couple of days.