Students on the rampage at the government primary school at Katkenwa village under Adapur block in East Champaran on Monday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Raxaul, July 4: A large number of students and their guardians ransacked a primary school today, alleging non-compliance of government schemes, aimed at benefiting the students, for the past several months.

The irate people burnt two wooden almirahs, over half a dozen furniture and other documents at the school, located at Katkenwa village under Adapur block in East Champaran.

The teachers, who had still not turned up, run away from mid-way after learning about the incident. Baliram Yadav, who had come to drop his wife Indu Devi, a teacher at the school, was attacked by the people.

The absence of the headmaster of the school, Vijay Sah, only added fuel to the fire.

Finally, the situation was brought under control after the arrival of Nakardei police. “The students of the school had been deprived over the past several months and they had lost their patience and that is why they protested in this fashion,” a resident of the area said.

Hari Kishore Kushwaha, the guardian of a student, told The Telegraph: “Teachers used to be absent from the school far too often. The teachers come just before mid-day and mark their attendance, chat amongst themselves and then leave. And for doing all this, the teachers get paid by the government.”

Lal Babu Mukhiya, a resident of the village, said: “The students here never got their mid-day meals, books, cash allowances of Rs 500 for books (from classes III to V) and the annual scholarship amount for students belonging to SC, ST and other categories.

Deep Lal, a student of Class III, said: “Even if some of the students got Rs 500 for books, they had to contribute Rs 50 for miscellaneous expenses of the school.”

Besides guardians and residents of the villages, even the students justified today’s protest. Amit Paswan, a Class IV student, Antima Kumari and Kameshwar Kushwaha, both Class III students, expressed grievances over the non-supply of fund for uniform, mid-day meals and books. Kameshwar pointed out that very often classes had to be dissolved, because very few teachers used to be present at the school.

Shyam Babu Ram, the district superintendent of education, who had promised to speak to this correspondent later in the day, could not be contacted for comment in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Raxaul deputy superintendent of police Rajeev Ranjan confirmed the incident and added that it was because of the promptness of the police that the situation was brought under control.