Bhubaneswar: A government school teacher in Odisha’s Angul district resigned from his job on Thursday following uproar over his alleged offensive comment towards a girl student, reports said on Thursday.
According to reports, Laxminarayan Prasad Bhujabal (37), teacher at Patakamunda High School in Chhendipada block of the district, nearly 200km from here, on December 18, 2016, made the controversial remark.
While Class-8 girl student offered pranam to the teacher after prayer, he allegedly responded her saying: “Raise up darling, I love you.” It is yet to be established if the teacher’s remark was an expression of affection for the student or aimed at offending her.
The girl told the incident to her parents, following which they raised the matter at gram sabha. Other villagers alleged that Mr Bhujabal had earlier behaved in a similar way to many girls. A meeting was held on the school premises in presence of the managing committee members of the educational institution, school headmaster and over 250 villagers, where Mr Bhujabal was made to confess his mistake. He reportedly apologised by prostrating before the gram sabha members. However, that wasn’t perhaps enough for villagers. They made Mr Bhujabal apologise again in the presence of additional district education officer (ADEO) and block education officer (BEO) on Thursday. The villagers and parents of the girl demanded his ouster, following which the teacher submitted his resignation to the DEO.
“The action will be taken as per the inquiry by the BEO. However, the way the villagers treated the teacher was wrong. No one has the right to take the law into own hand. If the teacher files a police complaint against the villagers, the police would take action,” additional district collector Srinibas Behera said.
