Members of a non-governmental organisation were forced to conduct a health check-up and blood donation camp on the street after a government school which had given them permission to conduct it went back on its word, allegedly after a BJP member put pressure on the school’s headmaster.
The camp was organised by Bhavya Narasimhamurthy, who heads B and N Foundation, a registered NGO. Ms. Narasimhamurthy is also Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson and is the State in-charge of ‘Priyadarshini’ in the Mahila Congress.
Around 150 people attended the health camp while 23 donated blood. Ms. Narasimhamurthy said it was a huge inconvenience to doctors and the people who attended the camp as it was conducted on the street.
While the school’s headmaster had reportedly given oral permission to conduct the camp inside the Government High School at Srirampura, in Dayanandanagar ward which falls under Rajajinagar Assembly constituency, she said they refused to allow them on Friday afternoon, allegedly after the intervention of a BJP member who is a close aide of Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar.
The BJP member is said to have told Ms. Narasimhamurthy that Mr. Kumar would decide if she could conduct the camp at the school.
“I even called up Mr. Kumar’s office and informed them of the matter. But I got no response. So I decided to go ahead and conduct the camp in front of the school,” she said, condemning “petty politics”. She said that after the camp was held, she stood outside Mr. Kumar’s house demanding why she was refused permission. Mr. Kumar, who was not in his house, said he would meet her on Tuesday.
A student’s parent said, “The schoolteachers informed us that a health camp would be conducted and asked us to come for a check-up. We were shocked to learn that the school was locked and we had to attend the camp held on the street.”
The headmaster of the school did not respond to calls from The Hindu, and neither did the Minister. The office of Mr. Kumar said Ms. Narasimhamurthy had not got a written permission to conduct the camp.
