More than 45 girls from an Eklavya Model Residential School in Chhattisgarh’s Surguja district walked out of their hostel and began a nearly 30 km journey to the district headquarters in Ambikapur after alleging that basic facilities had remained unavailable for months.
The students of Shivpur Eklavya Model Residential School in Batouli alleged that their hostel had been without electricity for nearly three months. They also complained of unhygienic food and mess conditions and a shortage of teachers that had disrupted regular physics and chemistry classes.
Students insist on meeting collector
The girls began walking towards the collectorate on Monday after, according to them, repeated complaints to the school principal and Tribal Welfare Department failed to resolve their problems.
The students had covered around 6 km when Assistant Commissioner of Tribal Welfare Lalit Shukla reached Bailkota and tried to persuade them to return. The girls refused, saying they wanted to meet Surguja Collector Ajit Vasant directly.
Authorities later arranged buses to take them to the collectorate.
The students told officials that they had come out on their own after their earlier complaints failed to bring any improvement. Some teachers reportedly claimed that the students may have been instigated, an allegation the girls denied.
One student fainted at the collectorate, reportedly due to exhaustion, dehydration and stress. She was taken by ambulance to the Medical College Hospital for treatment.
Collector orders immediate action
Collector Ajit Vasant met the students and directed officials to address their complaints immediately.
He ordered the restoration of electricity at the hostel, improvement of cleanliness and hygiene in the mess and the deployment of guest teachers to address the shortage of faculty.
Vasant also formed a three member inquiry committee comprising Joint Collector Sharda Agrawal, Sitapur SDM Fagesh Sinha and Assistant Director Kiran Rajput to investigate the alleged lapses.
Nodal officers overseeing ashram hostels across the district have also been directed to conduct physical inspections within a week.
After meeting the collector, the students were taken back to their hostel by bus.
Chhattisgarh CM seeks accountability
Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai ordered an inquiry into the incident and sought accountability from officials responsible for the prolonged problems.
Speaking to Collector Vasant over the phone, Sai said it was “unacceptable” that students had to leave their school and walk such a long distance simply to have their basic grievances heard.
“If electricity and other issues had persisted for so long, why were they not resolved in time?” the chief minister asked, directing the administration to fix responsibility and take action against officials or employees found negligent.
Sai also directed officials to establish a system through which complaints concerning electricity, teaching, food, sanitation and safety are resolved at the school or hostel level without students having to approach senior authorities.
The incident is reportedly the third such occasion during the current academic session in which tribal students in the district have approached the collector’s office over hostel related problems.
The inquiry will examine the students’ complaints and determine whether administrative or institutional lapses allowed the problems to continue for months.
