Land squabble leaves school mired in problems

Babasabarpalaya Government High School does not hold the deeds to the land on which it is built and so is not eligible for any kind of maintenance.

By Isha Bajpai

BANGALORE (Oct. 11)—NGOs seeking to donate money to repair a dilapidated government school in Babasabarpalaya cannot do so because the local government has not transferred the farmland the school stands on to the state education department.

The school was built over 30 years ago on a land reserved for dharmatopu (plantation, grazing and farming) purposes, according to the Deputy Commissioner’s Office.

The school administration filed a request with the local tehsildar district office seeking possession of the land, but there has been no response from the government for the past three years, said Ms. Prema, headmistress of the school.

The school lacks chairs and tables, its boundary walls are broken and its classrooms get flooded during the rainy season. Rainwater flows into the school as it is lower than the road level.

The education department claims that the funds of Rs. 23, 000 allocated every year are sufficient for the school, but the school authorities do not think so. 

“The amount granted to the schools is enough for them to maintain the schools,” said Mr. Ramesh, the block resource coordinator at the Education Department.

The Rotary Club, R.K. Foundation and The Club are some of the NGOs that came forward to help the school.

“The school does not face just one problem—there are many here,” said Gayatri M.V., a teacher in the school. “Due to the lack of a boundary and improper infrastructure, people come and create nuisance in the premises.”

Schoolchildren have to put up with the school being flooded during monsoon.

About four years ago, the school administration sought to build another block, but the plan came to nothing.  The Rotary Club offered to construct the building, but later backed out because the land did not belong to the school.

“The case has been under the Deputy Commissioner’s Office for six months, and they just tell us to go from one office to another,” said Yogesh B., a teacher in the school. “The result comes out to be nothing.”

 “The zila panchayat [district council] has to survey that land and confirm that the land has lost the feature of dharmatopu, and only then can we proceed further,” said Ms. Bhagyamma,manager of the Deputy Commissioner’s Office.