In yet another attempt to appease a certain section of society for votes, the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand government has decided to change the name of a 92-year-old high school in the Nadia area of Lohardaga district in Jharkhand. As per the reports, the Soren-led state government has decided to rename one of the schools, from ‘ Nadia Hindu High School’ to ‘CM School of Excellence.’
The state government decision has sparked an outrage among the locals who are of the opinion that the word ‘Hindu’ should be reinserted in the name of the school as it was the primary condition set by the owner of the land, Ghanshyam Das Birla before donating it to the government, the locals asserted that the government will have to roll back his decision otherwise we will have to take the matter to the high court if needed.
The Nadia Hindu High School was opened back in 1931. It is located at Old Thana Road and was built with the help of some renowned people in the region. However when the school committee noticed that they would need more space to expand the school premises they decided to approach Mr Birla to donate some land for the school so the school can be shifted from Old Thana Road to the Nadia village itself.
The school committee then authorized Rai Sahib Baldeb Sahu to take the matter further to Mr Birla following which Baldev Sahu ji went to Kolkata and had a meeting with Ghanshyam ji, in the meeting
Baldev ji asked Mr Birla to donate some land in the Nadia village to which the latter accepted happily.
After returning from Kolkata Baldev ji along with his other associates then built the school building on the land donated by Mr Birla, which was later acquired by the Bihar government, however during the acquisition process it was agreed by the then Bihar government that the name of the school shall remain as Nadia Hindu High School, and it was only when the government assured Mr Birla and the locals that the name of the school will remain unchanged, Mr Birla donated the land to the government.
The report further has mentioned the statement of educationist Madan Mohan Pandey who while reacting to the state’s government decision said ‘that the government cannot change the name of the school as it was the primary condition set by the owner at the time of the acquisition and it was only after the government approved of the term set by the owner that the land was transferred to the governor.’
“The same has been mentioned in the sovenyuer issued by the school at its golden jubilee in 1981, therefore the government cannot change the name of the school, the land giver reserves the right that the intention out of which he made the donation should be protected”, it read further.
The report further quoted the remarks of the District Education Officer (DEO) Das Sunanda Chandra Mauleshwar who said “that the state government has decided to rename as many as 80 schools as CM schools of excellence (Utkrishtata Vidyalaya), the name of all the listed schools has been changed, it has been done for uniformity”.
Meanwhile speaking with the Organiser, Cabinet Minister and incumbent Member of Parliament from Lohardaga Sudarshan Bhagat said, that the Nadia Hindu high school is an old one and we have no clue about the intention of the state government’s decision about renaming the school, though whatever has happened is not good.
“It seems like the government has taken this decision to appease a certain section of the society, the decision should be roll backed”, quoted further the BJP lawmaker.
It is to be noted that this is not the first time that the state has made the national headlines pertaining to a controversy regarding a name change in the schools as earlier a number of schools from the state had rose to the national limelight in July last year after it was reported that ‘Urdu’ word was added before the names of a number of schools in Muslim dominated regions of the state.
Later on, it was also reported that at least 70 schools of 5 districts have approved an unofficial week off on Friday and the students studying in the schools do not fold their hands at the time of school prayers.
