Jamshedpur: Seventy-three children and their parents sat on Ghurabandha-Dumaria Road, East Singhbhum, some 75km from Jamshedpur, blocking traffic for three hours on Monday morning to protest having to walk around 1km to their new school following the merger of their old one last week.

The state governments diktat to merge smaller schools with bigger ones to maximise resources based on Niti Aayog recommendations is backfiring in the interiors of East Singhbhum.

On Monday, at Dumaria block, a known rebel turf, 73 students from Classes I to V of Utkramit Prathamik Vidyalaya Swargchhida, which had been merged with the bigger Prathamik Vidyalaya Dumaria, refused to go to the new school.

From 7am to 10am, 150 people, including the 73 schoolchildren with schoolbags, their parents and relatives, squatted on the road and raised slogans against the merger, prompting a small team of policemen from Dumaria thana to camp on the spot to prevent any untoward incident.

Bikes and cycles were noticed crossing the stretch from the sides, but four-wheelers were stuck.

Asked, villagers said their children would not walk 1km to their another school as the existing one was near their homes. Protester Shankar Hembram said they had earlier sent a memorandum to the district education department but in vain.

Dumaria officer-in-charge Mohammad Yunus said the blockade was lifted around 10am when block education officer Baikunth Mahto came to the spot and spoke to protesters.

"We assured protesters that we would discuss the issue with our seniors," said Mahto, adding he asked the children to go to the old school, Utkramit Prathamik Vidyalaya Swargchhida, which was closed, for the next couple of days.

He claimed Prathamik Vidyalaya Dumaria was not that far but villagers were still protesting.

"After the merger, students attended the new school for some three-four days. Suddenly, they are protesting. Forces with vested interests have misled them," he claimed, but did not specify who.