In 2021, Akshay Kumar visited jawans posted near the Line of Control in Gurez Valley, Bandipora district, Jammu and Kashmir — at the invitation of the Border Security Force. During that visit he spent time with students at the Government Middle School in Niru village, heard out their limitations firsthand, and made a public commitment: ₹1 crore for the school’s development. Four years later, the building is done.
The new block, named Shri Hari Om Bhatia Education Block in memory of Akshay Kumar’s father, houses modern classrooms, a computer lab, a library, and staff office facilities. Students who previously studied in significantly poorer conditions now have access to a cleaner, better-equipped environment. Locals told Mathrubhumi that the change has visibly increased children’s interest in attending school, and the government midday meal programme is now being delivered in more comfortable circumstances.
A Promise Made at the Border
The 2021 visit was not a promotional trip. Akshay went to spend time with soldiers — dancing with them, paying tribute at a war memorial for those who died in service. The school visit happened in that same context, not as a planned philanthropy stop. The ₹1 crore pledge came from a direct conversation with students about what they lacked.
That gap between announcement and delivery — four years, a remote Himalayan valley, a school that has now been transformed — is the detail that separates this from the standard celebrity donation announcement. The building exists. The students are in it.
Gurez Valley sits at high altitude near the LoC, cut off by snow for months each year. A computer lab and library in a government middle school there is not a small thing.
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