Invited for felicitation, 100 SSC toppers made to wait for 4 hours near Mumbai

Mumbai city news: When the enraged parents decided to leave, the mayor called the students and felicitated them.

The Thane Municipal Corporation had invited around 100 Class 10 toppers of all civic schools for felicitation but made them wait outside the general body hall for more than four hours on Tuesday. The students and their parents were not allowed to sit in the public gallery and were not even offered water or snacks.

Most civic students scored well in Class 10 despite their underprivileged backgrounds. (Pic for Representation)

When the enraged parents decided to leave, the mayor called the students and felicitated them.

Most civic students scored well in Class 10 despite their underprivileged backgrounds and the corporation had invited 100 such students to recognise their achievement.

A parent said, “We were called at 10am as the general body meeting was scheduled for noon. It began more than an hour late around 1pm and was again adjourned for another hour. All this time we were standing outside the hall, with no teacher or civic official offering us water. When some of us asked to be allowed to sit in the public gallery, they didn’t let us.”

Another parent added, “This is not the way to treat students. All these students are busy applying for college admissions, filling forms to be shortlisted for colleges. They could have called us at noon instead.”

Ex-mayor Ashok Vaity, who saw these students, said, “We spend over Rs2.5 lakh in a day over any delegate visiting the corporation, can we at least provide water to these students?”

Mayor Meenakshi Shinde defended the civic body and said, “We called the students at noon and we will find out if their teachers had asked them to come at 10am. We will ensure that the situation is not repeated.”