Around 105 underprivileged children, majority of whose parents work as coal pickers, received NCERT books, stationery and school uniforms at Bhaga Basti based Pathshala on Sunday.

BCCL officer, Dev Kumar Verma, has been running the school for six years after renovating a single-storey house of his own.

The educational aids were handed over to the beneficiaries by chief guest Madan Mohan Mishra, principal of Saraswati Vidya Mandir, Sinidih in the presence of Verma and others during a programme held at the school campus.

“We are running three schools at different parts of Katras including, Bhaga Basti (established December 2018), Prem Nagar (August 2018) and Katras Bazar (March 2015) having a cumulative strength of around 400 students and today provided the educational help to 105 students of Bhaga Basti school and will gradually provide the same to students of other two schools,” said Verma to The Telegraph Online.

“All the educational materials worth around Rs 1 lakh were provided with the financial help of around 70 person including my friends and well wishers,” he said.

“During the pandemic as the economic condition of everyone including my own deteriorated, I started finding it difficult to manage the expense of three schools where free of charge education is imparted to these children belonging to families lying on the fringe of society and thus made an appeal to my friends and well wishers over social media platforms and 70 people came forward with the help,” said Verma, an area manager of BCCL in Barora area.

Ram Pravesh Verma, father of a class VII student of Bhaga Basti based school, who received the educational material said, “With the meager income of around Rs 4000 per month, earned through book binding work, it was not possible for us to bear the fee of my son nor can I purchase the books and stationery and today our tension for managing books and stationeries have been relieved.”