Maharashtra: School children made to stand on road to welcome minister; video goes viral

MUMBAI: A video of school children standing on a road in north Maharashtra to welcome the convoy of a newly-sworn in NCP minister has gone viral on social media. The video shows the children, apparently from an ashram shala in Amalner tehsil of Jalgaon district, standing on the road, with girls standing on one side and the boys on the other.

Ashram shalas are residential schools for students belonging to scheduled caste and schedule tribes. The video shows the children, some sans footwear, squatting along the road for some time, awaiting the arrival of Anil Patil, who was sworn in as minister in the state government along with eight other MLAs of his party. As soon as the minister’s vehicle arrives, the children are seen getting up and standing, some of them even saluting the minister.

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While the viral video has prompted outrage on social media, there has been no reaction either from the minister or local administration. A police official at Amalner, which is 350 km from Mumbai, said they have no information about the incident, adding there has been no complaint received so far.