ABOUT 500 PEOPLE ATTEND

CM REPLIES TO SABE MEMBERS DEFENDING THE DECISION

CONTEMPLATING FUTURE ACTION

Dear Friends,

The dharna against the closure of the HSTP in Hoshangabad was held at Tin Shed, Bhopal on August 4, 2002. One of the major achievments was that the Dharna was organised by half a dozen Bhopal based groups working in the field of progressive education and democratic issues.

Earlier on the 3rd, a similar public meeting was organized at Hoshangabad to protest against the above decision. It was attended by about 80 persons, despite torrential rains that evening. During a brief respite from showers a Nukkad Natak was held outside the Collectorate. Earlier in the day, another meeting was called by the BJP MLA Sharma's family to welcome the state government's decision. This was attended by about 500 children and teachers from 10-12 private schools of Hbd alongwith some teachers. More than two dozen playcards had just one slogan 'Anil Sadgopal vapaas jao'!

The day long dharna in Bhopal started at about 11.00 AM and was attended by about 300 teachers, students and citizens from the field area of Harda, Hoshangabad and Malwa. Supporters from Bhopal also turned out in large numbers. Some of the schools of Bhopal with whom we have been working for

the last coupls of years also participated in the Dharna. So about 500 people attended the day-long public meeting and exhibition of press-clippings, low cost kit material, experiments etc that finally turned into a rally to submit a memorandum protesting against the HSTP closure to the Chief Minister.

For details we are attaching the press release and the petition submitted.There have been a number of other developments after that. We will try to report these in another brief update by the evening.

Do stay tuned,

Tultul Biswas, Kamal Mahendroo, Rajesh Khindri, Anjali Noronha and others For Eklavya