The Champua Bandh demanding establishment of a Kendriya Vidyalaya at a location originally approved by the CBSE was held peacefully on Monday here.
Sources revealed that after a notification of the Union HRD Ministry in the year 2016-17, the location for the KV at Ramla under wards no. 11 and no. 12 of Champua NAC had been approved by the CBSE, but owing to a dispute over allotment of the required land, it was decided by the district administration to shift the school from Ramla to Kalikaprasad village situated by Rimuli - Champua State highway, about 12 km from Champua.
From the very beginning, the locals of Champua were opposing the change of location of the KV to Kalikaprasad, but it turned out to be stronger when a message spread that the representatives of KVS, Bhubaneshwar and Principal, Keonjhar KV had visited two sites recently at the request of the district level committee for the KV headed by the ADM and had approved the site at Kalikaprasad. The locals alleged a conspiracy of some influential people for a change of the location of the school.
While former Champua MLA Dhanurjaya Laguri, communist leader Bidyadhar Mahanta, Santanu Kar, Santan Das and other members of the Champua Vikash Parisad sat in the dharna, several outfits like the Champua Bar Association, Bus Owners Association, Truck Owners Association, Auto Rickshaws Association, business community, minority community, Ho Samaj, Bhuyan Sanskrutik Sangha extended their support to the stir. Meanwhile, the agitators agreed to the request of the administration to put off the strike for a month.
