Jamshedpur, April 25: Members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) set up a statewide blockade on Saturday, April 25 at Mango Bridge to protest against the RTE violation.
Other ABVP branches across the state protested which affected normal life against alleged irregularities in private schools. Commuters had a tough time due to the students’ agitation. Traffic jam occurred at several places leading towards Sakchi.
The students raised slogans against the private schools which left hundreds of people stranded on the busy bridge which connects Jamshedpur to other parts of state. As a result, hundreds of vehicles came to a standstill around 11 am leaving commuters in a spot of bother.
Students and women were the worst affected. A commuter Rahul Sinha, resident of Jugsalai who got caught in the road blockade, was furious. “I was going Payal Cinema to watch Avenger Movie with my friends but the show time got over due to the blockade”.
Prabhat Shankar Tiwary, general secretary of ABVP present at the protest said we demand immediate implementation of the RTE Act in private schools, centralising entry level admissions, filling up the reserved seats in all private schools and regulating the annual fee hike. Earlier on Thursday, a group of 30 ABVP activists protested at the district collectorate and submitted a five point memorandum to the chief minister Raghubar Das.
ABVP activists said that Human Resource Development Minister of Jharkhand Neera Yadav has said that commercialisation of education will not be tolerated in the State and private schools will have to follow the rules in accordance with the Right to Education, or action will be taken against them.
CM has already directed to adjust the amount in monthly fee and every private school of the state who had taken amount in the name of readmission will have to follow the direction of Chief Minister Raghuvar Das.
“We are not going to tolerate the increasing practice of commercialisation of education in our State,” said the activist.
Accepting that the level of government schools in the State was very low, he said that efforts are on to upgrade the level of those schools.