LUCKNOW: A five-year-old child in a government school in Ballia district was locked due to alleged negligence of the staff. The child identified as Aditya was later rescued by his family members, who had to break down the doors of the classroom, said the police. The government primary school is in Beruarwari area of the district.
A video of the rescue also went viral on social media, taking cognisance of which Basic Shiksha Adhikari, suspended headmistress Urmila Devi while salary increment of six other teachers was temporarily stopped for negligence in duty.
In the two-minute video which is doing rounds on social media, the child can be seen crying for help before being rescued by his family members. One of the members breaks open the doors to find Aditya inside. Family members told journalists that they began searching for Aditya after he did not return home from school on Thursday.
"We began a hunt and spoke to his friends and in the meantime, some villagers told us that they had spotted a boy inside the school. We rushed to the school to find it locked from outside and hearing cries of help we broke open the door," said Ramesh Rajbhar.
Later they lodged a complaint with the police. The issue then snowballed and reached the office of Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) of the district Maniram Singh.
"I immediately directed the Block Education Officer (BSO) to investigate it and prima facie found Urmila Devi negligent in handling her duty hence suspended her along with stopping salary increment of six other assistant teachers," he told TOI.
Suspended Urmila Devi told journalists in Ballia, that Aditya had slept beneath the table and hence was not visible while closing the door of the classroom.
