CRPF to take 15 underprivileged students from JK on 'Bharat Darshan' to Odisha

A group of 15 underprivileged students hailing from this picturesque hilly area of Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday left on a 10-day 'Bharat Darshan' tour to Visakhapatnam. The tour with the theme 'from mountains to sea' was organised by the CRPF to expose the students to the outside world as most of them have never ventured outside their home town.

CRPF Deputy Inspector General P C Jha flagged off the tour from the Kotli community hall in presence of the 4, Rashtriya Rifles' commanding officer, Col D D Pandey, Bhadarwah's Additional Superintendent of Police Rajinder Singh and Bhaderwah Development Authority's Chief Executive Officer Rajinder Kumar Khajuria. "The tour under the civic action programme is primarily aimed at giving exposure to the 15 students belonging to below-poverty-line families of different villages of Bhadarwah valley," Commanding officer of CRPF's 33rd battalion commanding officer A Padama Kumar said.

He said these students have never gone beyond Jammu and some of them are moving first time even outside Bhadarwah. “For these students, it's like a dream come true to move beyond the hills to the coasts of Visakhapatnam," Kumar added.

He said it was heartwarming to see the excitement of the students. “This tour will go a long way to expand their vision and overall development of their personality. For this noble gesture of CRPF, I, as a teacher, feel indebted to the force for giving my students this opportunity which otherwise they could have never afforded due to financial constraints," educationist Arif Hamid Rana said.

After flagging off the tour, Jha said, "Visakhapatnam is the largest Navy yard and our motive to take these underprivileged students there and other places including Delhi is to expose them to the development in the country.” He said the tour will help the students to understand different cultures so that they can also feel an urge to compete and reach there to be a part of developed India.

(With inputs from agencies.)