Students forced to wade through pond to get to school; survey soon for solution, says official

NEW DELHI: A rural department official in Datia in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday said a survey will be conducted shortly at a school where nearly 100 students, including 70 girls, have to wade through a pond to reach the facility. District Panchayat chief officer Kamlesh Bhargava said all efforts will be taken to alleviate the problem at the school in Taga Nareta.

The water of a nearby canal fills up the pond, leaving these students with no option but to wade or swim during monsoon, students and parents said. "An application has been received about the canal water gushing into the pond. An engineer had gone to the site. A survey will be held shortly to overcome the problem," Bhargava said.

School principal Laxman Kumar Paikra told PTI he had approached elected representatives to get a bridge built on the pond but his efforts have been in vain so far.

It is scary to have to cross the pond but there is no option, said Rishika Bhatt, a student of the school, which is part of the Prime Minister Schools for Rising India (PM Shri) tasked with exemplary implementation of the NEP. Another student Nandini Pal said the pond has snakes, adding that lack of a bridge could force many to quit studies.

The school has 224 students, with the ordeal of wading through the pond and sitting in class drenched being faced by 100 students of Nareta village.