School boundary wall awaits LIT nod
Charanjit Singh Teja
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, April 22
Several letters from the Education Department to Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) about demarcation of school land for construction of boundary wall at Government High School, Sarabha Nagar, yielded no result and the school continues to function without boundary wall. The school management was unable to construct the wall despite a grant has been released for the purpose under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA).
According to the information, the school was located on 9,500 sq yard of land allotted by Ludhiana Improvement Trust. The school was upgraded to middle in 1996 and to high in 2002. The school management constructed separate buildings for high and primary schools but failed to build the boundary wall.
As the school was located on a busy road, students of the school often start playing alongside the road and get hit by speeding vehicles. Two separate incident have happened in past.
Because of the absence of a boundary wall, stray cattle and dogs often enter the school premises. Residents allege that anti-social elements also misuse the school premises for the lack of boundary wall.
Kusam Lata, headmistress, Government High School, Sarabha Nagar, said, “We have received funds under the programme RMSA to construct the wall but there is no demarcation of the boundary wall so we cannot construct the wall. We have written to Improvement Trust several times, but nothing has been done so far.”
Paramjit Singh, executive officer, Ludhiana Improvement Trust, said, “I am not aware about the issue. Tomorrow, I will find the records related to school.”
Meanwhile, some residents have also written to the State Human Rights Commission, Punjab, to intervene and the commission asked to district administration to file the report as soon as possible.
Rajat Aggarwal, Deputy Commissioner, said, “I would ask the chairman of the LIT to sort out the issue as soon as possible. If there would be some trouble regarding the documents we will find solution. The safety of students is our priority.”