Big Impact: Forces removed from Bam Bidhyapith High School in Dholai, students back to classrooms

Five of the eleven classrooms have already been vacated and the rest are expected to be emptied in the next couple of days. The headteacher of Bam Bidyapith High School in Bagha exclaimed with joy this morning, “The children are back to their classrooms and the teachers are taking their classes.”

This comes as a big impact of Barak Bulletin’s ground report published on December 13. The report highlighted how the forces are in classrooms while students were attending classes in the open or under makeshift sheds.

The headteacher of the Bam Bidyapith High School informed that one platoon has already left the school and another one is packing their bags and baggage. He added that five classrooms are now available and the students have been shifted already.

Bam Bidyapith School was established in 1950 and has 1819 students enrolled, 367 of them are supposed to take the matriculation test in 2021-22 session.

After the report was published, the Guardian Minister of Cachar, Ashok Singhal said that he will take up the matter with the concerned department. Similarly, the deputy commissioner of Cachar, Keerthi Jalli also assured to look into the matter.

As it turns out, the district administration and state machinery, prioritised the matter as it involved the future of hundreds of children and the forces have been removed, albeit, only to some extent. Speaking about the development, Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, Keerthi Jalli said that the administration wants all classrooms to be vacated, not only in Bam Bidyapith but also in the adjacent schools. “We are working on finding alternatives. It being in border areas, hard to find community buildings that soldiers can use,” said the deputy commissioner of Cachar.

Hawaithang High School, another highly important institution in the Dholai area has around 1000 students but all its classrooms are occupied by the central forces. These forces were deployed due to the border skirmishes between Assam and Mizoram. The skirmish turned into a bloodbath on July 26, 2021, when the Mizo forces opened fire from the hilltop leaving six Assam Police personnel dead and around 40 hospitalised.

Since then, the relationship between the two states improved but tension prevails in the bordering areas. However, the two chief ministers belonging to the same coalition met recently and promised to sort out the issues “amicably”. How soon the forces vacate Hawaithang High School and about five nearby lower primary schools, is something that remains to be seen.