School students walk 18 km on highway to lodge complaint to Gadwal collector against principal

Hyderabad:Students numbering 124 of Social Welfare Residential School at Beechupally walked for over 18 km on the Bengaluru national highway and lodged a complaint with Jogulamba-Gadwal district collector B.M. Santhosh against the principal for allegedly harassing and beating them up.

In response to the students’ complaint, the collector asked the principal to go on leave and appointed a three-member committee to probe into it. Wanaparthy district educational officer (DEO) Mohammed Abdul Ghani, who is also in-charge DEO of Gadwal district, confirmed on Wednesday that the principal was asked to go on leave till inquiry.

Unable to bear the alleged harassment by the principal, students decided to lodge a complaint against him. They walked 18 kms from the school to the Collectorate building in Gadwal to meet the Collector.

On seeing the students at the office, the staff informed the collector, who invited a group of students to his chambers. In the presence of additional collector (revenue) V. Laxminarayana and other officials, Santhosh collected details about the students, who informed him about the harassment of the principal.

Upon hearing the students’ problems, Santhosh also took a serious note of the students arriving at the office by walking on the highway and advised them to call officials in case of any problem in future.

Ghani said the committee would be headed by a tahsidhar. The district administration is expected to initiate corrective measures once the committee submits its report to the collector at the earliest.