Development at the cost of education in Bihar

Residents of Koilwar in Bhojpur district of Bihar launched a ‘School on the Road’ movement to protest against the failure of the government to reconstruct the local school, demolished to make way for the four-lane Patna-Buxar road.

Today’s agitation was led by All India Students’ Association, which has appealed to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to reconstruct the Taramani Bhagwan Sahai Higher Secondary School on an urgent basis.

The school building was demolished and its land acquired for the Central Government’s road project. It is two years since the demolition of the school building and the students are deprived of education since then.

The protestors got the school children to sit on the road today in support of their demand. The school has 1,600 students on its roll.

Two weeks ago, the villagers had taken out a torch procession demanding the reconstruction of the building.

The villagers have now threatened that they will ask the students to sit on the road everyday till the school building is reconstructed.