Kusma to file Rs 100-cr lawsuit against education officials

The Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (Kusma) has decided to file a Rs 100-crore harassment lawsuit against the officials of the Education department, apart from initiating contempt of court proceedings against them.

On the pretext of ‘language policy,’ Kusma alleged that the managements of unaided schools were being unnecessarily harassed. Though Kusma had earlier hinted about filing a lawsuit, its members took a decision to this affect at a meeting held on Monday, which was attended by as many as 1,250 schools. At the meeting, the members expressed that some district officers of the Education department were ‘intentionally harassing’ schools imparting English medium.

Kusma took the decision, a day after another school association in the State, Associated Managements of Government Recognised English Medium Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) issued a legal notice to the Education department officials, threatening to initiate contempt of court proceedings if the government fails to respond to their legal notice.

With directions of the High Court and Supreme Court being in their favour, both the associations have stated that they had every right to run classes in English medium. By withholding the permission, the State government was only violating the court’s directions, they alleged.

The members also voiced their protest against the State government’s recent proposal for a new child protection policy that seeks to hold school principals and managements responsible for any act of abuse against children in schools.
 
They said they were equally concerned about the child sexual harassment cases and would ensure that such incidents did not repeat in schools. School managements will be morally accountable for such incidents and will cooperate with police for investigation. The managements would be accessible to the aggrieved family in such instances and would not flee the place.

However, the members argued that it was not fair to pin the responsibility of such an act by any staffer on management members.
DH News Service