Amitabh Bachchan had made some big announcements of opening a college in Daulatpur, about 70 km from Lucknow in the name of his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai.
The foundation was even laid on 10 bighas of land for the Srimati Aishwarya Bachchan Degree College in Barabanki and it was initially thought that the project would complete soon.
An aide of Bachchan, Rajesh Rishikesh Yadav, had also said, “The village committee has handed over the land to Amitabh Bachchan Sewa Samiti (ABSS), a newly formed organisation. The construction work will start soon. Initially, there would be a school from nursery to class 12 and later on it would be upgraded to a degree college.”
However, the interesting thing is that this all was a good 10 years ago.
Yes, 10 years ago in 2008, the foundation for the college was laid in a big event and the village grabbed a lot of attention because of this.
What Happened?
Amitabh Bachchan visited Daulatpur, a small village in Barabanki that is about 70 km away from Lucknow back in 2008.
As per Yadav earlier, the 10 bighas of land was handed over to the ABSS and Big B in a big event laid the foundation stone for the college along with his daughter in law Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan present. Even Mulayam Singh Yadav and then Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh had attended the ceremony.
However, with the years passing by and no work getting done, the villagers’ hope that Big B would bring a change to their lives kept diminishing.
With a decade gone by and the college still unfinished, the villagers thought to take matters in their own hands.
While speaking with News18, a resident of Daulatpur village, Ramesh Chandra, said,
“When Amitabh Bachchan announced the degree college in their village, we were convinced that the fate of the village will change. But even after 10 years, nothing has been done.”
“So everyone decided to crowdfund the college as youngsters had to go for higher education and the nearest college here is 30 kilometres away.”
The villagers got together and decided to build their own college at a land that was just 500 meters away from Amitabh Bachchan’s decided plot for their college.
A 40 year old teacher by the name of Satyawan Shukla took up the initiative to build the college and was helped by his father and brother who donated about 13 acres of land for the college.
It did not just stop there. The villagers also pooled in and by crowd-funding managed to collect about Rs. 60 lakhs which was used for the construction and other necessary expenses.
Read More: Priyanka Chopra’s White Makeup Artist Called Her A Brown Barbie And She Didn’t Mind It, Should We?
The Pride Of The Village
With the help of crowd-funding and their own determination, the villagers were able to complete the construction of the college and now have a 15 room college that will be offering courses like BA and BSc.
The work on the college started just last year, on November 17th 2017 and the college is now ready for students to start studying there.
As per sources, a resident called Pappu Singh had talked about how Amitabh Bachchan’s inability to complete this project was really disappointing and that the villagers, “don’t believe him now”.
Rammilan Shukla, another villager also stated that,
“Bachchan had done nothing for us, but we don’t have any grudge against him. The college is the result of our self-pride.”
Apparently, admissions for the college had started this July only and the college will soon be up and running soon.
More power to such villages!
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: India Today, Times of India, The Better India
Other Recommendations:
In Pics: The Story Of A Mumbai Man Who Fills Potholes On The Road In The Memory Of His Son
