New Delhi: Over 40 students of a school in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district were forced to sit outdoors after agitating farmers locked up stray cattle inside the school premises on Monday.
Kamlesh Singh, principal of the school in district’s Bhadivar village, told Hindustan Times that when he arrived at 9 am, he saw that around 100 stray cattle were locked inside.
The agitating villagers – armed with sticks – had locked the gates, refusing to open them. So when the students began arriving, they were forced to sit out in the cold to attend classes.
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According to D.S. Pathak, sub-divisional magistrate, Bara, the villagers were protesting because they have been losing their crop to stray cattle over the last several months. Farmers have in the past lodged complaints with district officials, but failing to get relief and tired of losing their crop to the stray cattle, they were forced to take such a measure.
“We got the school premises vacated by 1:30 pm. Measures will be taken to ensure that such an incident is not repeated,” Pathak told the English daily.
As per an ANI report, an FIR has been registered against 28 people in connection with the case for disrupting the functioning of the school.
The incident has come just days after the state government decided to levy a cess to fund temporary shelters for cattle, saying that this would burden people, drawing ire of the opposition.