Students return as police forces are withdrawn from Balitutha Primary School on the outskrits of the Posco project area in Jagatsinghpur. Telegraph picture

Paradip, July 15: Criticised by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for converting educational institutions into police barracks, the Jagatsinghpur district administration today vacated the school building that was occupied by armed police for maintenance of law and order at the proposed Posco steel project area.

On July 4, a team of the commission visited the area and had subsequently asked the state government to take immediate steps to withdraw police forces given shelter in schools at the Posco project site area.

Earlier, the matter pertaining to the use of school buildings for police shelter had come under judicial scrutiny with Orissa High Court serving a show cause notice to the state government. The matter is still sub-judice and awaits verdict.

A section of guardians had sought the high court’s intervention while stating that the presence of police was adversely affecting the academic activities.

Also, the government-run Balitutha Primary School had become the temporary home for armed constabulary for past 19 months when the resistance movement against the steel project was at its peak.

The civil and police administration preferred to house the armed police at the particular school building because of its strategic location. Balitutha happens to be located at the entry point of the project. The place is witness to numerous resistance movements in the past necessitating police deployment at the spot.

“On directions of the district collector, today we have vacated the school building in which the police were housed. The police forces were withdrawn from the school premises. They are being accommodated in another place in Balitutha village,” said S. Devidatta Singh, superintendent of police, Jagatsinghpur.

“Though police had been given shelter in the said school, it had been ensured that classroom teaching was least affected following police presence. As public interest litigation is pending in the high court, the administration has opted to vacate the school premises. The armed police forces are now being accommodated at the Balitutha gram panchayat office building,” said Narayan Chandra Jena, collector, Jagatsinghpur.

Schoolchildren, however said: “We are happy. We were getting distracted by the armed police’s presence in the school. We were unable to concentrate on our studies due to frequent movement of police forces,” said Rajat Mohanty.