PANAJI: An acting principal of a government college in north Goa was relieved from the charge after a controversy over his decision to reject a request by a group of students to hold a ‘Saraswati Pooja’ event in the hall of Sant Sohirobanath Ambiye Government College of Arts and Commerce.
Prof Filipe Rodrigues e Melo, who had been the college’s principal for several years, has been “relieved from his duties” and repatriated to his parent institution, St Xavier’s College “with immediate effect in public interest”, said an order by the directorate of higher education issued on Wednesday.
The government order did not cite any reasons for the decision. Asked, higher education department officials refused to elaborate and stressed that there was nothing more to say.
A person familiar with the sequence of events said the college principal was shunted out after he disallowed a group of students from hosting the event that had not been sanctioned.
“The students insisted that they be allowed to hold the event. It was not a formal event and there was no idol involved, but only a framed image. When the students were denied permission, they said they would be going ahead anyway,” the person cited above said.
In September, the principal of a higher secondary school in Dabolim was suspended by the school management after complaints by some groups that he took the students for a visit to a mosque without their parents’ permission.
