ROURKELA: In a huge relief to students who commute long distances to schools at their personal expense, the district administration has provided free bus services to 12 Odisha Adarsh Vidyalayas (OAVs) with financial assistance from the District Mineral Foundation (DMF).
Each of the 12 OAVs has been provided with three buses to ferry needy students free of cost. Only Class 10 students are currently benefitting from the bus service which started from January 16 onwards. But as more classes resume with easing of Covid norms, the facility is likely to benefit more than 1,200 students.
A budgetary provision of Rs 8.64 crore has been made for two years. Accordingly, the transport contractor would provide 36 buses equipped with surveillance cameras and GPS and also bear cost of drivers and helpers who returned to Sundargarh during the lockdown. Fuel expenditure will be borne by the administration separately.
Expressing relief over the development, in-charge principal of OAV at Mahipani in Bisra block Pratap Swain said the school has above 400 students from Class 6 to 10 but the hostel facility can accommodate only 100 girls. “Some students from Panposh and Rourkela cover 35-40 km one-way to the school and incur monthly auto-rickshaw fare of over `3,000. Others from remote villages like Bisra cover the distance on bicycles. Many parents had taken up the issue with the administration and finally, their grievances have been sorted,” he said.
Taralata Nayak, In-charge principal of OAV, Lathikata said adolescent girl suffered the most as their poor parents, besides incurring travel cost, were worried about their safety. Sumita Majhi, a Class 9 female student said before closure of school due to Covid-19 lockdown, she used to share auto-rickshaw with other students for a two-way journey of above 80 km and her parents had to incur a monthly fare of over `2,500 which was a lot for them.
As the OAVs lack adequate hostel facilities, an agreement was signed with a transport contractor to provide bus services from April 2020. But with the lockdown and closure of schools, the idles buses meant for the purpose were used initially to ferry migrant workers.