Used cartridges, bullets found in school believed to be of British era

LUCKNOW : The used/missed cartridges, bullet shells and toy rifles recovered from a room at a primary school in Narhi in Hazratganj on Friday are believed to be more than 100 years old, belonging to the British era, said officials.

Police and education department officials said that a letter written during the time of the United Provinces (British era) and recovered from the same locked room of the school had mentioned military education being taught as a subject at primary schools.

Abhay Mishra, circle officer, Hazratganj, said, “The recovered items included 142 packets of at least 100 used/ missed bullets of 0.22 bore each (14,200 used/ missed bullets), 125 used/ missed bullets of 303 rifle and 83 bullet shells. These have been kept at the ‘maal khana’ (store room) of the Hazratganj police station on the application of the block education officer, Archana Kumari, under whose presence the labourers had opened the room and discovered the items.”

Lucknow Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) Amarkant Singh said the education department was still in the process of finding out about the recovered items.

“The basic education department came into existence in 1972. The subject of military education was not in existence back then. Before the formation of the basic education department, primary schools were run under the supervision of the zila parishads and the nagar panchayat parishads,” said Singh.

However, he confirmed that a letter written sometime in 1910-11 was recovered from one of the boxes in which the used/ missed cartridges and bullet shells were later found.

“Police officials stated that the recovered items seemed to be for training purposes. A booklet of 1958 was also found in one of the boxes. Initial probe suggests that the room was not cleaned for the past 40 years,” said the BSA.

He said, so far, the education department had not found any documents related to military education, but senior authorities and old teachers of primary schools were being contacted to get more details in the matter.

“The room was used as an office of the block education department. It remained closed after the office was shifted,” he said.

The police had earlier said that the recovered items could have been meant for the training of the National Cadet Corps.

The cops had suggested that the cartridges and the bullet shells may have been kept there as an NCC camp had been set up on the school premises.