Schools’ top officials can declare holiday in case of rain; widespread protest against collector’s strange directive

KOZHIKODE: Widespread protest galore against Kozhikode District Collector Snehil Kumar Singh for not declaring a holiday despite heavy rains and for putting that responsibility on the school principals. Following the collector’s act, an emergency online meet was convened by the DPI and decided to declare a holiday.

Rains have been lashing the district for days. Many places were flooded and traffic was blocked in the rains yesterday. Still, the collector was not ready to declare a holiday.

Moreover, the collector informed that the head teachers can take a decision on granting leave to schools considering the situation in the respective areas. This directive surfaced at 9 pm. With this, the DPI convened an emergency meet and declared a holiday. The collector had given a holiday on Wednesday following rain. However, the rain got stronger on Thursday. However, the protests were against his act for not declaring a holiday and giving the right to the teachers to take a decision.

Many including parents protested against the act of the collector, also the chairman of the disaster management committee, on his Facebook page. The criticisms were levelled in harsh language. The teachers' organizations alleged that the collector is trying to put the blame on the head teachers in case of accidents due to rain. Along with the protests, many trolls surfaced making fun of the collector's action.