Kolkata/IBNS: A day after Bankura Police sparked controversy with an announcement to engage civic volunteers in providing supplementary classes to primary school students of the district, West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu said the district police’s initiative was a local-administrative level project and was not approved by the state’s school education department.

On Wednesday, the Bankura Police launched the 'Ankur' project involving 124 civic volunteers as teachers to provide additional classes to primary-level students of 46 schools, at least one in each police station area of the district.

The decision ignited a debate on whether the state police was breaching the periphery of its designated role of maintaining law and order.

However, on Thursday, the state’s Education Minister clarified that the matter had not been approved by the government and the project has been put on hold.

“Local administration in Bankura has been asked not to implement the 'Ankur' project immediately and to put it on hold until further order,” said West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu.

The matter had stirred a fresh controversy at a time when West Bengal is already facing protests over Dearness Allowance demands and corruption in state government job recruitments.

Slamming the decision, the BJP leader alleged that the move is a ploy to further reduce the quality of education in the state government-run schools so that no one takes admission to these institutions.

In a tweet, Adhikari wrote: "# No. of Students appearing for Madhyamik Exam has shrunk by 4 lakh # 8207 state-run schools in WB have student strength below 30 With Civic Volunteers tasked to conduct supplementary classes for Primary Level Students, WB Govt plans to shut down Govt aided education completely."