eNarada, Bengaluru, Sunday, June 11, 2017
In a shocking development, Maoists in Odisha have threatened educationist and humanist Dr Achyuta Samanta against offering free education to tribal students.
A few days ago, Maoists had pasted a letter at a wall in Kakriguma village (Koraput district in Odisha) warning Dr Samanta to stay away from educating the poor masses.
Sources said that Maoists were demoralised as most of the kids whom they recruit for their operations against the police and security personnel were shying away holding guns as they were instead wooed by Dr Samanta to hold pens.
Laughing away at these warnings, Dr Samanta said, “I am committed to make everyone literate and I will not be bogged down by such threats. I know that educating an individual is a divine act and will continue to do so.”
It may be noted that Dr Samanta has been fighting the Maoism issue from a long time through his best weapon-education.
Dr Samanta who has started Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) in Bhubaneswar to provide free residential education to 25,000 tribal kids from KG to PG.
Ever since the KISS was started a few decades ago, the students who were hitherto joining the naxal movement are now getting quality formal education. Most of these tribal kids have now entered Indian civil services, national sports team and even have bagged jobs in some of the top tech companies like Infosys and TCS.
