Shahdol: Over 150 students from one of the Eklavya hostels of the district of Shahdol from the village Jaitpur of the Eklavya area walked out of their hostel protesting the absence of direct contact with the collector and raising their complaints with him.
The students were seen to have jumped the hostel wall and walk along Rasmohni towards the collectorate. They are virtually going to walk 60 kilometres to the district headquarters, according to the information available.
Officials tried to convince the students to go back to the hostel, but they couldn’t stop the students from walking further; the students had walked around 15 kilometres before, so they didn’t mind walking more. The district administration responded when a large class of students hurriedly moved.
Assistant Commissioner of Tribal Affairs Anand Rai Sinha led the officials to go with students and make an attempt to talk to them. But the students said that they would not discuss their problems with the authorities and wanted to meet the collector face to face.
The police also attempted to arrange for the students to be safely escorted back to the students’ hostel. Two buses, including a passenger bus and an official one were reportedly on standby to track the group and help them return.
The students, however, were defiant and adamant that they would proceed towards the collectorate, he said. It was also reported that students danced on each other as they tried to pass and were pushing up on an official, but the administration still delivered counselling to them and averts from escalation.
The students have stayed away from the hostel, as they had gone to meet the collector, but were not willing to talk to other officials, wrote Sinha. The administration was keeping track of them and trying to get them to go on the bus and come back, he said.
The incident has also left an impression that it isn’t in the interest of the students to visit the collectorate repeatedly from hostels in the district. This incident did not come as the first in a row of young hostel students, who walk to the district headquarter to voice their agenda, the officials said.
The administration is trying to get in touch with the students and arrange to take them back to the hostel safely.