M F AHMED
Daltonganj, Oct 29: Barwadih police has gifted scores of school children in the area with a unique present just ahead of Diwali. They have directed the bus operators of Barwadih to charge Rs. 6 per trip from schoolchildren instead of Rs.10 to minimize the economic burden on their parents’ shoulders.
School students (both boys and girls) in the area travel to the Morwai High School, a distance of 14 kilometers from Mandal, by spending 20 rupees per person every day. This way one student had to cough up around 500 rupees (minus Sundays) on travelling to and fro every month, which the poor parents and guardians used to find a tough monetary burden.
Due to this, the students and their parents devised their own way to minimise this economic burden. Students used to skip classes only to save money on their travelling and the guardians promoted this truancy of their children which resulted in poor attendance on the campus of the school as well as hampered their education.
Officer-in-charge of Barwadih police station, Srinivas Singh, said today, “On Thursday we learnt about the hardships of these students of the Mandal who study in the Morwai high school. They told us that they have to spend ten rupees for each side’s trip to school and back home that comes to 20 rupees per student per day.”
He then immediately called in the bus operators and prevailed upon them to charge Rs. 6 per trip from the Mandal-based students who study in the Morwai high school. The bus operators have agreed to this proposal made by the police.
Students hailed this decision with joy as it will help them save a lot of money. With this cut in the fare, it has scaled down from 20 rupees a day to 12 rupees, courtesy Barwadih police, said sources, which intervened most dedicatedly.
The OC also said that Morwai has been under a stronghold of the Maoists and when they reached there on Thursday for their interactive session with the students, they found them somewhat discomforted to see so many of them in the khaki.
Singh said that the children here have in their consciousness, the figure and picture of the Naxals who also roam around in khaki and instill fear.
Quoting the principal of the Morwai high school, Singh said, “About ten years ago, students of this school describing their ambition in life used to say they want to become ‘party wala’ (a euphemism for the Naxals). But today, these children wanted to know from the police how to be a policeman, engineer, etc.,” he added and opined it as a paradigm shift.
Barwadih police in their interactive session with three more schools on Thursday, made a stride against witchcraft by telling students that there is neither a witch nor any witchcraft that can do any harm at all. So, they must not believe in it. The students on this nodded in affirmation but some sources said that they are not sure about how long these young minds will resist the idea of witches and witchcraft as the society and family behaves otherwise.
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