Wow, what a news. These people are making schools as a political ground creating intimidated political environment and most importantly, what happens to the safety of school property?? This really sucks. Below is the article taken from www.kantipuronline.com. Have a read!! 144 Valley schools directed to vacate for polls Kantipur Report KATHMANDU, Feb 6 - Despite protest from schools and UN concern over safety of schools in the wake of polls-related violence, the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday directed the principals of at least 144 schools in Kathmandu Valley to vacate their schools for municipal polls from Monday evening. Sending letters to all the school principals through District Education Office, the EC has asked the schools to keep all facilities such as desks, benches, telephones, among others intact for the poll officials. Voting is scheduled for Wednesday. The authorities of the 33 private schools have protested fearing damage to school property. In the letter sent through the Kathmandu District Education Office, the EC has asked English Preparatory School, a private school in New Baneshwor, to vacate the school by 5 pm on Monday. There are eight schools in Baneshwor area alone where voting is taking place on Wednesday. These include: VS Niketan, Gyan Niketan, Purna Boarding School and Kamal Netra. The EC letters states that the schools are to provide their premises for 7 and 8 February. "We have not given permission to keep booths," a school principal said, requesting anonymity. Fearing Maoist backlash, PABSON is making last-ditch attempts to dissuade the government from using private schools. "We'll appeal to human rights organizations and the UN office on the issue," Umesh Shrestha, president of PABSON, said. On Thursday, UNICEF issued a statement on behalf of the UN System in Nepal, urging the government not to locate polling booths in schools, terming it a new threat to the already beleaguered schools. On Saturday, Education minister R K Mainali challenged the UN for questioning the government's right to use schools as polling booths. Posted on: 2006-02-05 19:04:44 (Server Time) Source: www.kantipuronline.com