On Thursday afternoon, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat instructed the police to arrest a school principal after she protested at the ‘Janata Darbar’ in Dehradun over issue of her transfer. Rawat reportedly suspended the teacher and asked her to leave the hall.
Fifty-seven-year-old Uttara Bahugana, the principal of a government primary school in Uttarkashi district’s Naungaon area, had demanded she be transferred from the area after spending 25 years in a ‘remote location’.
When Rawat refused, she began arguing. The chief minister lost his cool and began shouting: “Suspend karo ise abhi. Custody mein le li jiye. (Suspend her immediately and take her into custody).” He said the suspension orders were issued for “showing disrespect and using abusive language”.
Rawat then reportedly said that transfer requests shouldn’t be brought to him on public grievance platforms. “All transfers of government employees will be done under the state’s Transfer Act,” he said.
