Private schools in Rohtak district in Haryana declared holiday on Wednesday as their buses were deployed for the rally organised to welcome BJP national president Amit Shah, reported The Hindustan Times.
This has happened in spite of a recent ban imposed by the state on using school buses for political rallies.
According to the report, State additional chief secretary (home) Ram Niwas, in an affidavit, had told the Punjab and Haryana high court in March this year that instructions were issued to all concerned to implement this ban. He had stated that forcing managements to send their buses for rallies was against the statutory provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.
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However, according to the report, the district administration itself went against the rulebook in Rohtak and issued instruction to the schools to give away their buses for the BJP rally.
The students and parents were informed about the holiday on Tuesday night via text messages from the school managements. Some cited potential traffic jams as the reason for closures, while others said their buses will be deputed for Shah’s rally as per instructions received from the district administration, the report says.
“The administration had asked for our buses for the rally. Therefore, many schools, including ours, had to declare it a holiday today,” the newspaper quoted a director of one of those schools.
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Last year, a class 8 student had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prevent local administration from taking over school buses for a Prime Minister’s rally organized by the BJP in MP’s Alirajpur.
The Haryana government had in March told the Punjab and Haryana high court that it has banned use of school buses for political rallies.
