NEW DELHI: The anti-reservation agitation took a bizzare twist on Oct 14 when a Sikh schoolgirl was burnt to death and an attempt made to make it look like she had immolated herself.
In her dying statement to the police, Parveen Kaur in the presence of 2 doctors at the Safdar Jung hospital said that she had gone out of her class to drink water when 2 boys hiding in the shrubs near the tubewell jumped out, poured kerosene on her and set her afire.
Even as she shouted for help, the boys jumped over the school boundary wall. Praveen said the boys wore the uniform of the adjoining Government Boys Senior Secondary School.
In another case, the school authorities said Tomar doused himself with kerosene in the playground of the school at 7:40 a.m. and lit a matchstick.
When some other students and 2 or 3 teachers noticed that Tomar was in flames they rolled him on the ground to put out the fire.
A note found in the school bag of Tomar, a resident of Nangloi in ‘West Delhi blamed Prime Minister V.P.Singh for his action.
Following the 2 incidents the schools in the areas were closed as a precaution.
Students damaged buses and blocked traffic at about a dozen places in the Capital.
Meanwhile, Yogesh Pawar, an Industrial Training Institute student of Vivek Vihar in East Delhi, who attempted self-immolation Oct 13, succumbed to his bums bringing the toll of immolation deaths in Delhi to 6.
These incidents came on the second day of the reopening of schools in the Capital after a forth nightlong vacation.
In a significant move the Goa Government accepted in principle the recommendations of the Mandal Commission and identified 14 socially and economically backward communities eligible for job reservation.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 19, 1990
