Other States - Orissa

BU students to hold coaching classes in violence-hit areas

BERHAMPUR: Members of a students’ organisation ‘Kandhamal Chhatra Sanghrash Samiti’ have decided to start teaching students of class tenth and +2 courses in Kandhamal district after Puja vacations if the administration and government did not take measures to reopen schools and colleges in violence hit areas.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, members of the organisation, who are mostly Post Graduate students of Berhampur University, alleged that the administration had become callous about the state of education in Kandhamal district. Most educational institutions in the violence hit areas are closed since August 24.

Major schools and colleges have been transformed into relief camps or camps of policemen and paramilitary forces.

Now more than 13,000 persons are sheltered in relief camps around the district.

Convener of the students’ group Karamchand Pradhan, who hails from Raikia, said the students, who are to appear board examinations of Class X and +2, are the worst sufferers because it would be hard for the educational institutions to complete the course in time before examinations. The authorities should have made arrangements so that the teachers of closed institutes could have taken classes of their students at some alternative place, the students said. At G.Udaygiri due to agitation of the women the administration had decided to hold classes of the local high school during morning hours at the local Kalinga College.

But student representative from G.Udaygiri Jayakrushna Pradhan alleged that till now the classes have not commenced at the alternative site although the high school continues to be used as relief camp.

So, the members of the students’ organisation have decided to hold coaching camps for secondary and higher secondary students at Raikia, Tikabali, G.Udaygiri and other areas where educational institutions would remain closed even after the Puja vacations.

They urged the teachers of these respective schools to come out and help their efforts for the benefit of future generation.

They appealed to the administration to set up small relief camps at block level rather than using buildings of large institutions for relief camps as the situation was getting back to normal in the district.

Their other demands included government take over of Kalinga College at G.Udaygiri and Adivasi College at Baliguda, end of police atrocities on educated youth of Kandhamal and establishment of some industry in the district. The students also demanded the arrest of those responsible for violence in the district.

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