By IANS,
Malkangiri (Orissa) : t least 60 school students, including 25 girls, walked for about 30 km at night through a dense forest in Orissa to complain to the authorities about irregularities in their school.
The Bhima Madakami High school at Iralgundi in the Maoist-infested Malkangiri district, some 700 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, has about 150 students. A majority of them live in a hostel.
The students said that they jumped the hostel gate around 1 a.m Wednesady and reached the district headquarter Malkangiri after walking through the forest and trekking over hills for seven hours to meet the district collector.
“The school headmaster lives 15 km away from the hostel. He hardly takes care of our problems,” Balsingh Dura, a student, told IANS.
“We are living in the dark and are not able to study because the hostel superintendent is not providing us with adequate kerosene,” another student Sabita Madkani said.
In the absence of the collector, the students met additional district magistrate Banabihari Mohanty and submitted a memorandum listing their demands.
Mohanty gave the students breakfast and sent them back to the hostel in a vehicle.
“I have asked the district inspector of schools to probe the incident,” Mohanty told IANS.
Bhima Madakami High school is a privately managed school. School authority denied the allegations and said the students have been instigated by some teachers.