Alipurduar, Aug. 11: Five Toto students have got a chance that no other from the primitive tribe has ever experienced. They will be felicitated and granted financial aid by the chief minister in Calcutta tomorrow to carry out their studies.
Tikey, Sunil and Sushanto, who passed the Madhyamik exams, and Prabin, Satya and Bhupen, who did well in Higher Secondary, have been waiting since August 4. The programme was cancelled that day for Subhas Chakrabarty’s death. Satya, now out of station, will miss the opportunity this time.
Prabin, a BA first year student in Jalpaiguri A.C. College, was excited about the trip. This was the first time that any Toto student had been called by a chief minister to Calcutta. “We are very lucky. It will be one of the memorable moments in our life. We will board the Darjeeling Mail this evening,” he said.
The students will take this opportunity to highlight the problems they are facing to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. “We will tell him that Totopara has a huge potential but yet not on the tourism map. Being a primitive tribe, we do not get any extra privilege but are treated like other backward classes,” Prabin said.
Block development officer of Madarihat-Birpara Naved Akhtar was unaware of the exact amount of grant. “But I have opened bank accounts for all the six,” he said. He had called the boys to Jalpaiguri, 120km from Totopara, so that they could spend the night there and board the train today without trouble. A strike was called in Jalpaiguri today
Courtesy: The Telegraph |
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