SCHOOL BEING CONVERTED INTO PARKING LOT
AARYAN SHARMA
JAMMU: TimesNow–one of the leading channels of the country on Sunday morning exposed a scandal of state government of converting a school into a parking lot. Pradeep Dutta, a journalist known for exposing social evils was first to expose the scandal which opened a pandora box making administration looking here and there to save its face.
In the TV channel debate held again on TimesNow in Sunday evening, the channel further exposed and cornered the administration, who stated that they are not demolishing the building and further added that the school under reference was having strength of 80 students (actually 250) with 40 teachers.
The teachers in government schools are appointed by Education Department so another big scandal of appointing influential teachers in the city though not required keeping in view the strength of students comes to light that the administration is least concerned about the education system.
Sources told STATE TIMES that majority of these 40 teachers are either relatives of bureaucrats, politicians who seldom go to the schools for teaching purposes.
This fraud is in force in almost all the government schools in municipal limits and always remained under a carpet of corruption and nepotism. Keeping aside unwanted, undesired blue-eyed teachers, over 250 students along with their parents are up in arms against the decision of the BJP-PDP alliance government to dismantle their school building to make way for spacious parking lot in the heart of city centre near Shalimar Road.
The parents, worried over the future of their children, are running helter skelter for last two days in a bid to stall the demolition of the Government Girls High School, City Chowk.
Most of the staff members posted in the school have been serving in the school for past several years and are well connected in the state machinery. The parents of these children claimed that the decision of the administration is bound to affect the education of their wards as the decision has been taken ahead of the beginning of the examination season. So far the state government has been defending their decision by claiming that parking lot project was cleared after obtaining ‘No Objection Certificate’ from various state government agencies.
In addition the decision to demolish the school was taken after it figured in the list of those schools which were shortlisted as part of the rationalisation drive carried out by the state school education department.
The area surrounding the school has been sealed by the Additional Deputy Commissioner while the state government is trying to accommodate students in other schools.
“They want to construct a parking space here and we have been shifted to another school, which is very small. There aren’t any desks in the new school as well,” said a student.
Opposition parties, meanwhile, have criticised the Jammu & Kashmir Government as they said that it is a nefarious move.
“Dislodging students at this moment will create multifarious problems. We strongly condemn this nefarious move on the part of the Government,” said Harsh Dev Singh, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party.
Provincial President of National Conference Devender Singh Rana claimed the state government should immediately call off the demolition of the school building. He said the state government should first set its priorities by stating whether education of children is more important or creating space for a parking lot.
However, Deputy Commissioner Simrandeep Singh said that a comprehensive exercise has been conducted in Jammu & Kashmir schools since the past one year to analyse the number of teachers and students. The school in question was also a part of this process.
“This exercise is called rationalisation of schools. We have merged those schools where the children are less in number. We also had a deficiency of staff in the outskirts. If we merge schools within a perimeter of 1km, we’ll be able to bring all students in one school. Excess staff will be deployed in the outskirts. This school was also a part of the rationalisation process. After that, it is the government’s decision. It is public property. If the building is lying idle after rationalisation, a genuine question arises of putting it to optimum use,” Simrandeep Singh said.
On the other hand majority of parents of school going children claimed the timing of the government has caused major heart burn and created hardships for them. They claimed the school has been shifted to Dogra Hall which is far away from their residence and children have to take long route due to closure of the road outside civil secretariat complex.
