A group of people led by BCCL officer, Dev Kumar Verma, engaged in imparting free education to children of coal pickers through their three schools, has adopted a painting route to create awareness about Covid infections in Dhanbad.

Six paintings made by a group of three painters led by Bengal artist Ganesh Sharma, were showcased at major squares around Katras town during the last five days.

“The paintings highlight the significance of abiding by social distancing norms and other government guidelines, to check the spread of infection,” said Verma.

Katras College, Bhatmurna Road, Sonardih Police Station, and Maheshpur Petrol Pump were some of the spots.

“We will be placing around 200 paintings at different places across the district. Two local painters, Krishna Kumar and Chaman Tyagi, are assisting Sharma in filling colours etc for some of the 3D-style paintings being made for the awareness campaign,” he said.

“Our move is based on the concept of street art, quite popular in the US, where unofficial or independent visual art is created in public locations for public visibility,” said Verma, adding that they will be gradually moving toward other place like Jharia, Sindri, and Dhanbad, spreading their message through paintings.

Pathshala Education trustee, Govind Kumar Sharma, said, “Paintings make a lasting impression on the conscience and memory of children and the youth, so we decided to adopt the painting route to carry out awareness among them”.

Verma is the son of a retired BCCL employee, Rajendra Sonar, who had carried out an intensive plantation drive in two Katras quarantine centres, GNM High School and Baghmara College, along with quarantine centre inmates during the last month.

He also ran 43 community kitchens in Katras to provide food to the daily wage earners and BCCL manual labourers rendered penniless after the discontinuation of manual loading during lockdown.

“Street art painting initiative is part of my social activity for Covid awareness launched in April this year during lockdown as all my three schools were lying closed,” he said.

“My father brought me up simply due to his limited income but taught me the right values,” said Verma, who helped underprivileged children of his ancestral house in Katras, after completing his MBA from NIT-Durgapur and joining Job in BCCL in 2014.

“I always wanted to do something for the less privileged and launched my schools,” he said.