12/07/2016
Students skip classes for repair Bad road triggers protest at raiganj school
Raiganj, July 11: Students of a co-educational, government-aided high school on the outskirts of Raiganj boycotted classes today in protest against the bad condition of the road leading to the institution and threatened to continue their movement if repairs were not carried out.
About 1,600 students study at Kashibati Vivekananda Vidyapith in Kamalabari gram panchayat, 2km from here. Students of the school blocked the gates just before classes were scheduled to begin at 11am today and stood at the entrance. Despite requests by teachers to attend classes, the students refused. There were no classes till the school got over at 4.30pm.
The school that has classes from V to XII is the only one for students in the villages of Bamangram, Shisgram and Banglabari.
The agitating students said the 10km-long road that led to the school from FCI More on NH34 in Raiganj had never been repaired after its construction eight-10 years back.
They said the road was broken and pot-holed now.
"The road's condition makes it difficult for all to walk or ride bicycles to the school. We take double the time than usual to reach the school. The school authorities shut the gates at 11am and many of us who get late in arriving are marked absent. We boycotted classes today so that the authorities did something to repair the road," said Suman Sarkar, a Class X student.
The students also complained that there were frequent mishaps while riding bicycles to school. "I ride my bicycle to school from home that is about 4km away. It should take around 20 minutes but it takes double the time because of the bad road. There have been many occasions when I have fallen from my bicycle after hitting potholes. We did a token class boycott today. But if the administration doesn't do anything, we will stop coming to school," said Shanta Roy, a Class XI student.
Pradip Kumar Ghosh, the headmaster of the school, said the demand of the students was justified. "The condition of the road is really bad. However, I do not support the boycott of classes. I am sending a report to the district inspector of schools about today's development," the headmaster said.
Purnendu Dey, the sahakari sabhadhipati of the Trinamul-run North Dinajpur zilla parishad, under whose care the road is, said: "We totally agree with the demand of the students. Tomorrow, we will have a meeting with north Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh and the matter will be discussed with utmost priority then."
[via the telegraph]