Students Allegedly Forced Out at Night for Centre of Excellence

VISAKHAPATNAM: Around 480 tribal students in Classes 6 to 10 at the Marikavalasa Boys Tribal Gurukulam in Visakhapatnam were allegedly woken up in the middle of the night, their belongings packed and the school premises emptied to make way for a proposed Centre of Excellence for students of Classes 11 and 12. The process reportedly began on Tuesday night aroun 9 pm and continued until Wednesday evening.

Students and parents staged a dharna in front of the ITDA office in Paderu, demanding that the children be sent back to the gurukulam.

YSRCP MLC and tribal leader Dr Kumbha Ravi Babu on Thursday condemned the reported shifting, alleging that the students were moved without adequate prior notice and in the presence of police personnel. He alleged that officials entered their rooms, packed their belongings and made them board buses to other institutions. He termed the manner in which the students were removed 'inhuman' and demanded that the Marikavalasa Gurukulam be allowed to continue.

“If the government wants a Centre of Excellence, it should construct a separate building or utilise another available building in Visakhapatnam. It should not be established by removing 480 tribal students from their school,” he said.

Denying the charges, ITDA, Paderu, project officer Aditya Varma said 225 students had been shifted to the nearby Marikavalasa Co-educational Residential School, 34 went home and the remaining students had been accommodated in schools closer to the city.

Varma said the proposed Centre of Excellence would provide free education to 600 tribal students. “The state-of-the-art Centre for Excellence is coming up in that school where 600 tribal children will get the best of education free,” he said.

The Marikavalasa Tribal Gurukulam was established in 2004 by the then state government to provide residential education to tribal students from agency areas. A junior college was subsequently established on the campus in 2010.