Schools defy GJM diktats

IE, Kolkata: With the state government cautioning schools in Darjeeling that their No Objection Certificates will be cancelled if they held the "five-minute compulsory prayer for Gorkhaland during the morning assembly" — a GJM condition that allowed the schools to reopen — the educational institutions continue to defy the diktat. 

All CBSE- and ICSE-affiliated schools in the hills have not held the prayer since their reopening a fortnight ago. 

"The schools have not yet started any prayer. Some have rather stopped holding assemblies at all just to be tactical," a senior official of the state education department said. 

The official added the state government has ordered that "the NOC, mandatory for obtaining affiliations from CBSE and ICSE, would be cancelled if the schools made the students read out the prayers on Gorkhakand state". 

The other condition set out by the GJM before the schools reopened — that around 50 school principals write to Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) with mass signatures of students asking the Centre to intervene in the Gorkhaland issue — has also not been met.

"Even though the letter was drafted and read out in front of (GJM president) Bimal Gurung in a meeting between the school authorities and the GJM leaders, the schools are yet to post the letter to the PM," a senior member in the CBSE committee said.