10 Years On, Locals Crowdfund College That Big B Failed to Build

Why is the college that Amitabh Bachchan promised to build 10 years ago in a UP village still not built?

(Photo: The Quint)

People of Daulatpur village of Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh have been angry with Amitabh Bachchan for the last 10 years. They feel cheated. In 2008, Big B had visited Daulatpur village with his family and laid the foundation stone of Degree College in the name of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav were also present there at that time.

It has been 10 years now, and the college still stands unfinished. The locals have waited long enough, and are now fed up. They decided to collect collect funds for the college and build it themselves.

The Quint’s correspondent Vikrant Dubey spoke to the people of Daulatpur. They told him of their hopeful certainty that their village would develop and their children would finally have a college, when a national icon like Amitabh Bachchan put his name to it.

Why Wasn’t the College Ever Built?

According to the villagers, there could be two reasons:

• Firstly, Amitabh Bachchan may have been a victim of village politics
• Second, it could be his distance from Amar Singh

Secretary of Daulatpur village and Secretary of Amitabh Bachchan Seva Sansthan Amit Singh says that Big B had given the responsibility of building the college to Nishtha Foundation, whose president is Jaya Bachchan. Nishtha Foundation did not build the college and blamed it on Amitabh Bachchan Seva Sansthan.

When Amitabh Bachchan Foundation stopped the college work, the people of Daulatpur village collected funds for it themselves, and now the work of the college is almost complete. The villagers built this college very close to the plot where Amitabh Bachchan’s college was supposed to be.

According to Ram Milan Shukla, the founder of the new college, the admission process is set to start from July.

(This story was originally published on Quint Hindi)