Students attend a class at Prathmik Vidyalaya Rukkanpura Musahari on Bailey Road in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Jai Prakash

A house on Bailey Road once built with ill-gotten money is now a flourishing institution to groom children.

Welcome to Prathmik Vidyalaya Rukkanpura Musahari, once the house of suspended IAS officer S.S. Verma and now a primary school where children from backward sections come to receive education.

The state government last year had decided to confiscate the building and open a government school in the house after it came to light that the IAS officer built it using money earned through corrupt means.

When the school was shifted here from its earlier premises located about 500m from the new building on September 8, 2011, there were 92 students and now the number has gone up to 130.

“The parents are fascinated by the sprawling and well-maintained three-storey building, which does not look like a school. The name of the school is written on a board that has been put up outside the building,” Usha Sinha, the principal of the school, said.

The children, mostly from Dalit families, enjoy the atmosphere of the house because of its cleanliness and marble floors. “Earlier, these children were studying in a building in dilapidated condition, but now it is like heaven for them. Being a government school, such facilities are not available at every building, which is why parents want their children to study here,” she said.

Sinha added: “A large number of parents visit the school to admit their children but we have only three classrooms here. The second and third floors are not yet used because of lack of infrastructure like blackboard, bench-desk and other important things.” When The Telegraph visited the school, children were found playing with switchboard and amazed to see the expensive bulbs and tube lights. Seven-year-old Divisha Kumari, who was admitted to the school last month, said: “It is a beautiful school, I have never been to such a place in my life. I love this place.”

Parents said they liked the school because no fee is charged and children get mid-day meal on all six days from Monday to Saturday.

Yogendra Prasad, a resident of Rupaspur, visited the school to get the admission of his grandchildren — Gaurav Kumar and Saurav Kumar. On the reason of admitting their grandsons in the school, Prasad said: “I heard that there are no water and electricity problems here. The building looks more like a hotel than a school and that is why I decided to admit my grandchildren here.”

A newly admitted student, Manish Kumar, 6, of Class I said: “I do not feel like going home. The best part here is the food that is served to us.”

IAS officer Verma was the first graft-tainted bureaucrat, against whom such action was taken since the Nitish Kumar regime enacted the Bihar Special Court Act, 2009, empowering the administration to confiscate ill-gotten assets of government officers.