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Minister's Reception

School children forced to join

Kept waiting for hours on streets

Staff Correspondent, Rajshahi
Authorities of more than 10 schools in Bagha upazila yesterday made around 500 students queue up along the road for two and a half hours to welcome State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam.
At his reception held at Bagha High School, Bagha municipality Mayor Akkas Ali presented Shahriar with a gold boat while Kawsar Ahmed, ward unit Awami League president of Monigram union, gave him a gold coat pin.
Headmasters of different schools and around 500 organisations and individuals also offered the minister wreaths and crests.
Apart from that, the local units of AL and its associate bodies erected at least 50 gates on roads of Charghat and Bagha upazilas to greet the state minister.
According to the students, they were called to school at 11:00am yesterday although it was the weekend. Around 2:00pm their teachers lined them up from the school gate to the function stage and kept them there until 4:30pm.
The students were not given any food or anything to compensate when they were allowed to go home around 5:00pm, said students and witnesses.
Abu Saleh Musa, a student of class-X of Bagha High School, said he only had some biscuits between breakfast and until he had returned home.
“We followed the teachers' instructions. It is fun standing together with friends to greet the
minister," he said.
Some school teachers said they took the students there to gain the minister's favour for the development of their schools.
Nishipada Sarker, headmaster of Rahmatullah Girls' High School, told The Daily Star that they had not arranged food for the students as they were asked to bring their own food.
“The reception was actually to benefit the schools. He [the minister] had done a lot in the past and we expect his support in the future," he said.
Meanwhile, State Minister Shahriar in his speech at the function apologised to the students for lining them up. He requested all not to do so again, including giving him gold items in present.
He declared to donate money worth the gold items given to him to a local organisation for the physically and mentally challenged. He also urged journalists not to present the news