NCPCR summons Damoh collector over Ganga Jamuna school controversy

Bhopal, June 30   The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has summoned Damoh district collector Mayank Agrawal to New Delhi in the Ganga Jamuna school hijab controversy.

He has been asked to report in the first week of July.

The Madhya Pradesh administration had suspended the registration of the school citing various lapses, including lack of separate washrooms for girl students and benches in classrooms.

On the basis of administration's findings, NCPCR issued notices to Damoh district collector Mayank Agrawal and Superintendent of Police (SP) Rakesh Singh to seek their replies into the matter.

"We had sought a reply from both district Collector and SP on this issue. Reply from SP was received, which stated that arrests have been made and further investigation is underway. While, we received no response from the district administration office," NCPCR Chairman Priyank Kanoongo told IANS on Friday.

He further said that multi-layer lapses were found during an inspection by a team of district administration officials.

"On the basis of the report, we had sought a reply from the district collector, which he failed to summit. Therefore, he has been summoned to NCPCR office New Delhi on July 10," Kanoongo added.

Notably, the role of district collector Mayank Agrwal was also questioned by Madhya Pradesh School Education Minister Inder Singh Parmar.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had formed a high-level committee, following which three persons, including Ganga Jamna school's principal were arrested.

Ganga Jamuna School in MP's Damoh hit the headlines after purported posters of the school went viral on social media, in which a few non-Muslim girls were allegedly seen wearing hijab. Later, the issue turned out to be an alleged "religious conversion" case, officials had said.