It was not too long ago when on 27 January, 2008, Amitabh Bachchan along with MP Jaya Bachchan, son Abhishek Bachchan, daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and then close friend Amar Singh, had visited Daulatpur village in Barabanki district and purchased a 10-bigha plot of land with a dream of constructing an educational institution.

But, as the time passed by, the college was left desolate and abandoned by the Bachchan family. The allegations against him said that Amitabh Bachchan purchased a land on the pretext of a farmer from the village council during Mulayam Singh’s tenure in 2006.

Villagers of Daulatpur, at some point, filed a case of fraudulent act in 2009 against the Bachchans for not returning the 0.24-hectare plot, which was reportedly returned to the Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Prada’s organisation Nishtha Foundation after the allegations against him stirred a huge controversy.

Amit Singh, secretary of ABSS (Amitabh Bachchan Seva Sansthan), handed a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to ABSS, for construction of a school which was the first and the last installment from the Bachchans.

Eventually, exhausted by the sheer recklessness and the isolation of the college from the Bachchans, the villagers decided to turn the dream into reality and crowdfunded an equally ambitious college, 500 meters from the site of the proposed Aishwarya Rai College. As per the reports, Rs 60 lakh has been collected and a building consisting 12 classrooms has been constructed and the new college will start with two courses – BA and B.Sc.

Furthermore, the land for the college was donated by a village teacher’s father and his brother, said a report in The Times of India, and the college, a co-educational college, has been christened Daulatpur Degree College and affiliated to RML Avadh University in Faizabad.

What do the villagers have to say about the new college

Disappointed, Dinest Kumar who manages the college said that over 15, 000 people thronged the venue when Bachchan family landed and we thought the girls would not have to cycle 35 kms away.

Geeta, a resident of Daulatpur, told The Times of India that she was happy because, from July, she will not have to travel 30 km to pursue her dream of higher education.

The Logical Indian applauds the effort of the villagers and wishes them all the best in their endeavour to take the new college to a new height.