Odisha students force BDO, tehsildar to walk on muddy road to school 

The students of Phulapokhari High School, who were staging a roadblock over the pathetic condition of the road to their school on Monday, made the block development officer (BDO) and tehsildar walk on the muddy and pothole-ridden road to their school. 

As per reports, Phulapokhari High School under the Baranga block is a century-old school and was transformed into a 5T school during the rule of the BJD government. With the rainy season in full swing, the road to the school has turned muddy and full of craters. The students are facing difficulties while negotiating their way through the road to their school. 

Fed up with the apathetic attitude of the local administration, the students locked their school gate and staged a roadblock at Phulapokhari, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded on both sides of Barang-Trisulia road. 

Also Read: Man cuts daughter-in-law’s nose with knife; woman killed in ‘bucket’ attack’ by husband in separate incidents in Odisha

“We had taken up our problem with the district Collector, the BDO and the tehsildar, but to no avail. We also met the BDO eight days ago but that too yielded no result. So we decided to block the road to make our problem heard,” said Tulasi Behera, an agitating student. 

On being informed, Barang block development officer (BDO) Dharmaranjan Panda, Barang tehsildar Tushar Jyotiranjan and Sibantapur sarpanch Sanjay Pani reached the spot and tried to persuade the agitating students to call off their demonstration. However, the students stuck to their demand for assurance. 

Later, they made both the officials walk up to their school to feel the suffering they are experiencing on a daily basis. 

They called off their roadblock only after the officials assured them of steps to solve their problem. 

“We will discuss with the land owner (who owns a portion of the road) and repair the road,” said BDO Panda. 

Tehsildar Jyotiranjan said, “We have taken the matter seriously. We will try to end the students’ problem as soon as possible.”

Echoing the same, sarpanch Pani said, “In the presence of the BDO and the tehsildar, we will discuss with the land owner and try to convince him to cooperate with us to end students’ problem.”