Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh:
A government school teacher in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh was in for a rude shock when she was sacked after she approached Mayawati with a personal complaint during the Chief Minister's visit to her school. Her fault, authorities say, is "breaking protocol."
On February 6, when Mayawati was inspecting a primary school in Naulik village in Auraiya, an ad hoc teacher, Preeti Pandey, approached her with a complaint of her sister-in-law and wanted Mayawati to hear her out. When she called out to Mayawati to hand over her written complaint, the paper was snatched away by the officers accompanying the minister.
Preeti says her sister-in-law's husband, who is a government teacher, harassed her and beat her up. So she wanted to file a complaint with Mayawati to get him dismissed.
"My sister-in-law wanted to commit suicide. She was in my house. She said that if I didn't give the complaint letter to Mayawati, she would kill herself. I had no other way out. When
Behenji was leaving the class and entering her car, I called her to give the complaint letter. But her officers took the letter away from me. Madam told me not to give her the complaint letter and then she left," Preeti said when asked why she wanted to give the letter to Mayawati.
District Education Officer, Jagdish Prasad, said she has been sacked for breaking protocol. "She broke the security line. The protocol was broken."