BLOs attend to SIR’s whims, muted Saraswati Puja at many schools

Kolkata: The usual Saraswati Puja fervour in schools was scaled down on Friday, with many teachers tending to SIR whims for BLO duty.Several teachers who play an important part in organising Saraswati Puja at their schools every year had to skip it this time because of their SIR duty. Moreover, several schools were occupied due to the ongoing hearing process. On Friday, almost all the hearing centres in Kolkata were closed for the puja.Bhawanipur Mitra Institution's headmaster Raja Dey said: "This year, we faced trouble with puja preparations as the ground floor was occupied due to SIR hearing. On the other hand, quite a good number of teachers from our school are on BLO duty. Our students were very enthusiastic and took the maximum load on themselves."Metropolitan Institution, Bowbazar branch, has only three teachers, including the headmaster, so they scaled down the grandeur of the celebrations. They also had to skip the puja-special lunch this time. Headmaster Kalidas Haldar said: "We only have three teachers remaining at the school, so we did as much preparation as we could. This is the first time the Saraswati Puja lunch was skipped, and we don't know if we could manage it as board exams are approaching."Arup Mondal, assistant headmaster of Tirthapati Institution at Deshapriya Park, visited his school on Friday to see how his colleagues and students arranged Saraswati Puja celebrations in his absence this time. "Unlike previous years, I had to miss the preparation of Saraswati Puja in school as my school work took a back seat ever since I was made a BLO for the SIR exercise. I feel sorry that I could not do anything for the celebrations this year."Paromita Roy, a teacher at a govt-sponsored primary school in north Kolkata, said: "Serving hearing notices at doorsteps and accompanying electors during hearings in the past couple of weeks, I could not look after the arrangements for the puja in my school this year." Sudipta Modok could not participate in the puja preparation for the first time in her teaching career. "I went to school as a visitor for the first time as today's hearing was off, but I felt very sorry as they had to prepare everything on their own," she added.