Addressing the people of Odisha, the Chief Minister said, "In these 75 years, Odisha has seen growth in agriculture, health and education sector. And, a new era of the transformation of Odisha has now begun."
"As Indians, this is a moment of glory and pride for all of us. In these 75 years, Odisha has shown the way how to rise to the challenges. The State has become a major sports hub in the country. It thrived from a food deficit state to a food surplus state. It has also set an example on disaster management preparedness," said CM Naveen.
The achievements of Odisha have shown the path of development to others. Education for all is the State's focus. Transformation of schools has brought new hope for students, he said.
Nearly, 3000 foundations have been laid for rural infrastructure projects. Besides, around 70 lakh women have been empowered through SHGs in Odisha, said Patnaik.
Around 1 lakh children are studying in 315 model schools across Odisha. Also, 50 hostels have been set up for 5000 girl students in the model schools, he added.
Shortage of teaching staff is affecting the education in the school which has strength of nearly 700 students. At present there are only 10 teachers against the requirement of at least 25 teachers.
The students have also complained of erratic electricity and water supply along with poor quality of food being served to them in hostel.
As per reports, there have been gross irregularities in money sanctioned for cycles for the students who are also yet to get their stipend money.
"We are facing a lot of problems; our woes are being neglected. Even though we have apprised our teachers and the head master, no one is listening to us," lamented a student.
"The students are plagued with several problems but the concerned authorities are callous about the gravity of the matter. As we are serving here on contractual basis, the authorities are threatening us to face dire consequences if we report such irregularities," alleged a teacher of the school.
However, the head master-in-charge of the school, Antaryami Parida said that he is unaware of the problems of the students as the regular headmaster of the school has been looking into it. He also pleaded ignorance about any irregularities in the school.
Meanwhile, the headmaster was not available for comment.
As per reports, BEO Bhaskar Lenka received a complaint that one of the teachers of Bakilikana Upper Primary School under Sheragada block is not attending school and taking classes. Last Saturday, the BEO decided to conduct a surprise inspection to nab the teacher red-handed. However, call it luck, the said teacher was present on the day when Lenka visited the school for inspection.
"I had got a letter on Friday last in which some students had complained that a teacher is not regular. Besides, the teacher exerts pressure on the headmaster of the school to sign his attendance register," said the BEO adding that the teacher was fortunately present in the school on that particular day.
This move of the officer has also been appreciated by students and parents. "We are happy that the BEO took such a step for us. Besides, he is taking several steps to ensure that proper education is being imparted to students. His actions have encouraged us," said a student, Baisakhi Pradhan.
"We appreciate the unique act of the BEO. It's a welcome step as it will create fear among the teachers, who are irregular, to be punctual," said Prashant Panigrahi, Headmaster of Dhenkisal Panchayat High School.
Though there is no confirmation of involvement of any dedicated racket, it is suspected that middlemen are forcing the children to beg on streets. The situation also hints towards rise in human-trafficking cases.
A few days back, two kids were spotted begging at Puri Badadanda with some people considering it a good deed and charity did not hesitate to donate some money while some others ignored them.
It may be noted that this was not the only instance of child begging as several instances have been observed when children were found begging on the streets of the holy city. Some of the child beggars have joined their family profession of begging while some beg on the streets to slake their hunger.
“Children need to be counselled. Either family members have engaged them in the begging profession or some situation is forcing them to do so. May be some middlemen are bringing needy and poor children from different locations and engaging them in this profession,” says Prasanna Kumar Das, President of Citizen Awareness Forum.
“Our law states delivering free education and free food are compulsory, but it seems, these children are deprived of their basic rights” added Das.
Meanwhile, District Child Welfare Committee Chairman and District Child Protection Committee Chairperson of Puri have admitted the instances and raised serious concerns over the matter.
As per law, education has been made mandatory for individuals up to the age of 14 years. Whenever any such incident is reported or comes to fore, children are rescued and required arrangements are made for them to access education. However, after some days, parents of these children create hurdles.
“Right to education has been made compulsory for all. Everyone will get free education till 8th class and we take immediate steps to rescue them and make the required arrangements. Our initiatives had curbed such occurrences in the city, but now it seems to have started again. We will take immediate action to put an end to it,” informed Mahabir Rudranandan, Chairman, Child Welfare Committee.
Manoj Kumar Tripathy, Chairperson of District Child Protection Committee urged people to not to engage their children in begging profession.
"We are launching drive to make people aware about the situation through different programmes. Whenever we receive a report of such involvement we immediately rescue children and link them with the education system,” informed Tripathy.