Garhwa: In a show of support for a teacher, hundreds of students of Kandi +2 High School took to the streets, blocked the Kandi-Bhawnathpur main road and forced the administration to reverse the transfer of their headmaster, Malay Kumar Singh.Carrying banners and posters and raising slogans, around 300 students demanded that Singh be brought back to the school. He had been transferred to his parent school at Lawahi Kalan in Dandai block.The agitation, however, turned violent when Kandi block pramukh Satyendra Pandey attempted to intervene. Some protesters allegedly vandalised his vehicle and smashed its windscreen. Stones were also allegedly thrown at the gate of the local police station.The students had earlier approached deputy commissioner Pashupati Nath Mishra seeking Singh’s reinstatement, but their appeal had failed to produce a response. Following the protest, however, the administration deputed Singh again to Kandi +2 High School.Singh had become popular among the students during his three-month tenure, with students crediting him with introducing several reforms in the school’s infrastructure and teaching system.Kandi BDO Rakesh Sahay said police exercised restraint despite the stone-pelting. “The protestors pelted stones on the gate of the police station. But the police exercised restraint to ensure that the situation does not go out of hand,” he said.Mishra also stressed the need to handle such protests carefully. “The incident of protest wherever it happens should be handled carefully. The police exercised restraint to solve the matter,” the DC said.
