Chhattisgarh getting schools vacated by security forces

RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh has begun vacating dozens of schools occupied by security forces who are stationed for anti-Maoist offensives in its southern restive tip, an official said Thursday.

“The authorities in the 40,000 sq km restive Bastar region (made up of five districts of Bijapur, Narayanpur, Bastar, Kanker and Dantewada) have been instructed to urgently arrange alternative buildings where the central forces can be shifted from schools to abide by instructions given by the Supreme Court,” a top official source told IANS.

He added the shifting process will be completed on a priority basis though just a few buildings are available in Bastar’s extreme forested interiors where Maoists have monopoly since about three decades.

The process for getting the schools vacated by central troopers has begun after the Supreme Court last week made a tough remark against the state government. In its submission, the Chhattisgarh government said that since the central forces were staying in school buildings, it has made alternative arrangements for running schools in the Maoist-hit villages.

The bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar dismissed the state’s submission and said, “We are not going to buy this argument. You have to vacate the schools”.

The school education has been severely hit in the troubled Bastar region as rebels have bombed dozens of schools in forested pockets in the post-2005 period, because the state government allowed para-military troopers to station themselves in these buildings for carrying out anti-Maoist offensives.