Bhubaneswar, Aug 2 (IANS) A scuffle broke out between Congress workers and the Commissionerate Police at Lower PMG here on Sunday during a massive rally by the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) demanding the resignation of Odisha School and Mass Education (S&ME) Minister Nityananda Gond over massive textbook errors and other irregularities in the state’s education sector.
The protesting leaders and workers led by NSUI National President Vinod Jakhar, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Bhakta Charan Das, and Odisha Chhatra Congress President Bibhuti Bhusan Mohapatra were proceeding towards the Chief Minister’s official residence to stage a gherao over their demands.
The Congress workers engaged in a scuffle when they were stopped by the police at Lower PMG.
The Commissionerate police later detained several senior Congress leaders and workers, including OPCC President Das.
Earlier on Sunday, the Odisha Pradesh Chhatra Congress organised a ‘Chhatra Sankalp Samavesh’ (Students’ Resolve Convention) at Master Canteen Square here.
The programme felicitated the newly appointed Chhatra Congress President Mohapatra and adopted a resolution outlining the organisation’s future course of action.
Addressing the gathering, Jakhar alleged that the Narendra Modi government was “anti-youth” and “anti-student”, saying that the Centre’s action against the students protesting at Jantar Mantar over the deteriorating education system was unfortunate.
Meanwhile, OPCC President alleged that student union elections are not being held in colleges and universities because students in Odisha are not coming out onto the streets to assert their rights.
He claimed that students were repeatedly being subjected to injustice and alleged that the state’s education system had collapsed.
Das claimed that schools, colleges and universities across the state were functioning with nearly a 50 per cent shortage of teachers, faculty members and other staff.
He accused the state government of playing with the future of students.
Das targeted the State Education Minister Gond accusing him of failing students, highlighted more than 2,000 glaring errors in government textbooks.
The OPCC President alleged that despite repeated demands for Minister Nityananda Gond’s resignation, the state government had continued to shield him and that the Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had remained unaffected by the criticism.
“To teach them a lesson, there is a need for a bigger and more impactful protest in Odisha than the one at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. If student power awakens, Odisha will awaken,” Das said.
–IANS
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