NSUI locks down DEO premises demanding fee waiver

Vadodara: Upping its ante, the National Students Union of India (NSUI) on Wednesday locked down the premises of the district education officer (DEO), demanding that fees charged by schools should be waived off.
Student leaders of the NSUI, the Congress-backed student outfit, locked down the entrance gate of the DEO office at Karelibaug, stopped the vehicle of the DEO and gheraoed the officer.
Raising slogans against the BJP-ruled state government, the leaders did not allow the DEO’s vehicle to enter the premises for quite some time.
“We have been demanding that looking at the current scenario where many parents have lost their jobs and business, the state government should announce a complete fee waiver of the first quarter fees,” said NSUI Vadodara president Vraj Patel.
“Since, our earlier representations before the district authorities have gone in vain, we are forced to lock down the office,” he said.
DEO U N Rathod, however, told media persons that such protest at the DEO premises was not proper. “It is a policy decision in which the DEO has no role to play,” he said.
Following a state-wide call by the student outfit, similar protest was also staged by the NSUI leaders in neighbouring Anand district where the cops detained the leaders before they could lock down the DEO office.
As protesters in Anand reached the DEO office and started raising slogans seeking the fee waiver, cops pushed them inside the police van.