Schools suspended due to fuel crisis in Tripura

Agartala, July 30: School authorities uble to ply busses to pickup students were compelled to suspend classes in various schools in state capital Agartala as Tripura is passing though a severe fuel crisis for the last two months. Most of the schools are private-run which have the facility of bus to pickup students. The school authority says it has become impossible for them to ply school busses as because of the fuel crisis.

Drivers have to wait for several hours till late night to get only little amount of diesel with which they are uble to run busses and so have no other option but to suspend classes till the situation improves.

Prafulla Dutta, Principal of Sri Krish Mission School said, “Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan and other schools have declared holidays for two or three days, until and unless the fuel problem is solved school will remain closed. Our school also we have declared tomorrow holiday and asked students not to come to school, class has been suspended but teachers are to come. Due to fuel it is not possible to take out vehicle tomorrow, there is no stock of fuel with us and it is very difficult to run the school.”

Meantime, Ajoy Acharya, a senior teacher said that the irregularity of classes will directly hamper the student as examition are approaching and it will be tough to complete the syllabus especially for the students who are going to appear for the board exam.

“We are hopeless as we are not sure whether from tomorrow we shall be able to run our busses to bring the students. Therefore, we are in a fix if all the busses can be sent to bring the students, if it is found that some of the busses are not is in a position to bring students due to crisis of fuel then whatever busses are having fuel those cannot be sent to bring a section of students to run the school. We do hope that from the concern authority necessary arrangements will be made so that we can bring all the students and run the school smoothly. Because exam is approaching so we would like to complete their syllabus smoothly. They have theory classes, they have practical classes, whatever classes are there in the curriculum we would like to complete that for the overall benefit of the students,” said Acharya.

However, the drivers complained that they have to wait for several hours in queue for fuel and so it is becoming tiresome and impossible for them to work day after day in such manner.

Kalipada Ghosh, a school bus driver who has been waiting in the queue since early morning till late afternoon said, “It is a big problem for us to get fuel and so our school has declared holiday today. I am waiting in the queue since 4.30am and still my turn to come. I am standing for more than 12 hours and how many more will be required for my turn to come I am not sure and if at all I will get that is also not sure as there is huge congestion here. We are told that the roads are in bad shape so oil tankers are not coming. If other vehicles can come then why tankers are not able to come we do not know. This is going on for the past two months.” Tripura is passing through fuel crisis due to bad road condition in the NH-8 in the Assam part bordering Tripura where the road has turned into slush and thousand of vehicles are stranded there. To overcome the ongoing fuel crisis the Tripura Government after rationing of petrol had started odd-even distribution on alterte days but there was no much change rather the situation has worsened as after petrol no diesel crisis has also started.

Incessant rain and flooding have made the tiol highway into more of a muddy field in neighbouring Assam, which has cut off access to the state of Tripura and due to which thousands of loaded trucks and tankers are uble to enter the state leading to crisis of fuel and essential commodities for the past two months. (ANI)