A school in Gaya that is accommodating pilgrims during the Pitripaksh Mela. Picture by Suman

Gaya, Sept. 15: Students of around 20 schools in Gaya are enjoying an unscheduled vacation, thanks to the 17-day-long Pitripaksh Mela.

For, the large number of pilgrims, who have started to arrive in the town since September 11, have been accommodated in school campuses by the district administration.

While other schools across the state will remain open, 20 schools in and around Gaya have been closed till September 28 — the concluding day of Pitripaksh Mela. Around 10,000 students of these schools will be deprived of their classes.

At present, the educational institutes are housing around 4,000 pilgrims.

District education officer (DEO) Vinod Kumar Jha told The Telegraph: “Twenty government schools, including 11 high schools and nine middle schools, have been taken over by the district administration to accommodate pilgrims.”

Sources said more than 2 lakh pilgrims arrive in Gaya every year for the 17-day-long festival. The pandas book the schools to accommodate pilgrims. They have to pay the district administration for this. Till 2010, the amount was Rs 2 per pilgrim per day. This year, it was increased to Rs 4. The amount realised from the Gayapal pandas goes into the account of Lodging House Committee (LHC).

Social activist Suresh Narayan told The Telegraph that disturbing studies was not a good idea. “The district administration should have made alternative arrangements. The government should construct accommodation facility on its own land.”

In 2004, then tourism minister Ashok Kumar Singh had announced that an accommodation facility — Vishnu Vihar Tourist Complex — would be constructed at an estimated cost of around Rs 2.84 crore. Building construction department executive engineer Ravindra Prasad told The Telegraph that the tourism department started the construction. It was handed over to the building construction department in 2007. The tourism department released Rs 2.15 crore for the project.