25km walk to school - NO VEHICLE IN STRIKE

Yanku Tamang (left), Kirti Tamang 

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, Kalimpong, Sept. 3: Four students of a central school who had come home in the weekend had to walk for over eight hours through forests and undulating roads in the absence of any vehicle to take them back to their institution in Kalimpong in the middle of the strike.

The students - three girls and a boy - began their 25km walk at 8.30am from Kafer village and reached Kalimpong around 5pm yesterday.

The girls - Yanku, Kriti and Sheetal - students of Class XII and Dipen, who studies in Class XI, had to trek through the thickly-wooded pathway from Kafer, walk all the way down to Relli village before climbing 10km uphill to reach Kalimpong.

One their way home, the students had managed to hitch a ride.

It took them around eight-and-a-half hours to reach Kalimpong. The four - who share the same Tamang surname - are students of Kendra Vidyalaya in Kalimpong and live in rented accommodations.

The students said they had to go home in the weekend because they had some work. "We returned to Kalimpong yesterday to attend classes on Monday," said Yanku.

While all schools and colleges in the hills have been closed since the strike began on June 15, Kendra Vidyalaya and the Army School, both located in the compound of the army station at Durpin, 3km from the town, have been functioning regularly.

"We have already missed our classes for a month because of the strike. We had gone to our village during the summer recess - that started on June 12 - but could not return on time. We, eventually, tagged along a group that was coming to Kalimpong to attend a funeral, Yanku added.