The Namatara villagers-police clash has a bearing on school students who skipped classes due to the presence of armed police in the area. They were apprehensive that they might face the wrath of the police like the other villagers, including a 9-year-old girl, who were injured in police assault and firing on Sunday evening.
The fear of police was palpable as students of Binapani Primary School did not make it to the school despite the fact that the annual examinations were only a few days away. The fate of injured Rita Jena, a Class IV girl student of the school reminded them of the police horror and brutality. Rita was returning home from tuition when she was shot at as police opened fire on the villagers who were taking out an anti-liquor rally. A bullet pierced on a leg of Rita, stated Rosani Jena, a Class V student, who was returning with the injured from the tuition but narrowly escaped from police bullet. When contacted, headmistress of the Binapani Primary School Nirupama Mallick stated that as many as 129 students of Class I to VII are studying in the school.
But after the police firing on Sunday, the students have stopped attending the school. On Monday, not a single student came to attend the classes whereas on Tuesday only 15-20 students came to the school, she informed. Mallick also fears that in the prevailing situation, the students might skip their annual examinations that were to start from March 16.
“The liquor shop, which is root of all evil, should be closed down from the locality as on several occasions the students of the school collected liquor bottle from the nearby areas for purchasing ice cream. In recent past, a school student fell unconscious after consuming liquor that was in a bottle, thrown on a road side,” said Mallick.