Kolkata: Members of the BJP teachers'   cell in West Bengal on Monday held a demonstration outside the state education department office in Salt Lake, demanding that private schools be asked not to charge any fee for the entire lockdown period, beginning mid-March.
    
Insisting that several parents were facing financial crisis, amid the shutdown, Lok Sabha MP Locket Chatterjee said school fees should either be curtailed or waived.
    
Chatterjee also said that private schools have enough funds to pay salaries of teachers and other employees.
    
"Several states have issued directives to private schools, asking them to reduce or exempt fees. The Mamata Banerjee government, however, has only asked the educational institutes to refrain from hiking fees," she said during the sit-in outside Bikash Bhavan.
    
Private schools should bear in mind that laboratories, libraries, and other facilities were not being used by the students at this point in time, the BJP MP said.
    
"Several parents have lost their jobs, while there are many that have incurred huge losses in their businesses," she added.