The opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) today demanded the Director of School Education and Literacy to immediately withdraw the show-cause notice issued against the principal of the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Jowai for allowing students to play a campaign song of the party.
‘Kongdeng Kongnah Ha U Prah’, the campaign song of the VPP, was played by students of the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Jowai during the Teachers’ Day celebrations on September 5.
Director of School Education and Literacy Swapnil Tembe in the show-cause notice issued to the principal of the school on September 8 said that she breached government rules by playing the song of a political party. Tembe also directed the principal to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against the school authorities for the violation of rules and norms.
Irked by the issuance of the show-cause notice to the principal, the VPP in a statement issued today termed it as “unwarranted, fatuous, condemnable and more importantly worrisome”.
According to the VPP, the show-cause notice revealed the first possibility that the officer took the initiative on his own and this could be due to his total lack of knowledge and understanding of the Meghalaya Services (Conduct) Rules, 2019 or his over enthusiastic to impress upon the party or parties ruling the State “for reasons best known to him”.
“In the show cause notice the officer concerned failed to cite any rule which the principal is alleged to be in violation. In fact, there is no rule to fix responsibility upon a government servant for the action of the students who are not governed by the Rules of 2019,” the VPP said.
The party also said that the second possibility is that the officer in question issued a notice at the directive of his political masters or some terrified politicians.
“It is undoubtedly, some elements are petrified with the response of the people including children in the state to the call of the VPP for clean politics. Such elements have the desire to find ways and means to intimidate the people to stop the spread of people’s love for the VPP,” it added.
“Whatever the possibility is, the issuance of the notice reflects that there is a section in the Meghalaya bureaucracy that is incompetent, irrational and spineless. One wonders what will be the future of the state of Meghalaya when we have such officers at the helm of affairs,” the VPP said.
The party demanded that the officer should immediately withdraw his notice “and instead should offer an unconditional apology not only to the Principal of the school concerned for the harassment but also to the general public for his attempt to infringe upon the citizens’ right to make choices”.
