Patna: The basic school at Bhitiharwa in Bihar's West Champaran, which was started a century back by Mahatma Gandhi, is set to witness a turnaround in its fortune on Monday.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar would inaugurate the newly renovated building of the school in an event.

Bhitiharwa is around 65km north of Bettiah, the headquarters of West Champaran district and around 275km northwest of Patna. The school has been rebuilt at a cost of Rs 22 lakh as part of the state government's special plan to mark the centenary year of Champaran Satyagraha, Gandhi's first experiment with mass movement in India after coming back from South Africa.

The Mahatma had launched the movement to ameliorate the condition of indigo farmers, who were suffering owing to the exploitative nature of the foreign planters.

The newly built school has 13 rooms in addition to four toilets - two each for boys and girls, and a kitchen shed. Ten teachers are posted at the school of 435 students - 193 boys and 243 girls. A separate kitchen has also been provided at the school.

"The school is of special importance as it was the first one which Gandhi ji set up during his visit to Champaran a century back after coming across the educational backwardness in the region," West Champaran district magistrate Nilesh Deore said on Sunday.

The Champaran district administration was informed by Gandhi ji on November 22, 1917, that he had started a school near Bhitiharwa. The school had to face resistance from local indigo planter A.C. Ammon. Having been started in a thatched room, the school was allegedly burnt down by the planter's henchmen.

"Locals, however, came forward in Gandhi's support in large numbers and by pooling in funds they got a concrete building for the school," said the DM.

Four persons - Sadashiv Lakshman Soman of Maharashtra, Balkrishna Yogeshwar Purohit of Gujarat, Kasturba Gandhi and doctor Dev had been deputed by the Mahatma to teach the students coming to the school.

The school's functioning was badly hit as soon as Gandhi ji left Champaran and it was shut down in a few years. Finally, the school was restarted in 1945 and since then it is running continuously.

Apart from inaugurating the renovated building of the school the chief minister would also lay the foundation stone of a multi-purpose hall, which would be built at a cost of Rs 4.91 crore, at the historic village. The project is part of the Gandhi circuit development programme of the tourism department and the hall would be completed in two years.

"Apart from organising special seminars on the life and philosophy of Gandhi ji, the hall would also be used in organising special prayer meetings in the manner in which such meetings used to be organised by Gandhiji," said a senior tourism department official.