A POLITICAL tussle has broken out over a video that surfaced on social media purportedly showing school students sitting in a classroom with umbrellas as water is leaking from the roof. The BJP has targeted the ruling TMC government in the state over the issue.
The Panchpara primary school of Pandua, which has been around since 1972, has witnessed three of its four classrooms collapse, with the fourth in a dilapidated condition.
Two of the classrooms have tin shade at the roof but these are not in usable condition now and water is leaking from the roof, sources said.
BJP leader Amit Malviya wrote about the issue on X recently, “What a shame! This is the tragic reality of Mamata Banerjee’s “education model” in West Bengal. In Hooghly district, 68 young students aged 5 to 10 are being forced to sit in classrooms holding umbrellas — because rainwater leaks through the broken roof of their school.”
Malviya added, “Where are the thousands of crores claimed to be spent on school infrastructure? Where is the much-hyped “Banglar Shiksha”? When the government is busy promoting appeasement and photo-ops, this is what children in Bengal endure — a collapsed system, no dignity, no basic facilities. This is not governance. This is criminal neglect.”
Teacher-in-charge Jayanta Gupta, who joined the school in 2023, said on Saturday, “I informed the school education department about the issue several times but nothing was done. Recently, the school education department sent two tripals (tarpaulin sheets) for a temporary solution.”
TMC MP Rachana Banerjee said, “It is very sad that students are sitting in their classroom with umbrellas. In my constituency, many such schools are there because the previous MP did nothing. I should have been given time to implement renovation work.”
However, local BDO Srebanti Biswas said, “We got the complaint. We sent an estimation to the school for repair work. Meanwhile, as a makeshift arrangement, we also sent tripals.”
Former CPI(M) MLA of Pandua, who is also a school teacher, Amzad Hossain said, “Under TMC rule, the entire education system has been ruined. Infrastructural development has also not taken place.”