Hyderabad: With the education department not budging over its decision not to stay demolish a school by the GHMC, the primary section of the Government Girl’s Urdu Medium High School Humayunnagar-2 was shifted to Kamatipura Government School, while the higher secondary section was shifted to Mallepally High School. Here, students of five classes share a single classroom.
Congress Greater Hyderabad vice-president Osman Mohammed Khan met the DEO and asked her to immediately acquire a separate building for Humayunnagar-2 School so that students could continue their studies without any disturbance.
Mr Khan said that as far as his knowledge went, GHMC officials had neither served any notice officially to the DEO about the condition of the building, nor had DEO accorded consent for the demolition of the building. He alleged that the GHMC demolished the building at the instance of a builder.
As a result of shifting of the school, education of students of three schools has been disturbed. In Kamatipura School, one classroom and the principal’s room were allotted to the students who were shifted there. Teachers were forced to take joint classes. A similar situation prevails in the Nampally High School where higher secondary classes have been shifted.
Teachers of the Humayunnagar school complained that they were not aware of the demolition of the building as it was carried out on a holiday. The school was shifted to other premises without intimating the parents, which affected the attendance of the pupils. They said that they could not collect the records of the school and therefore were not able to even take attendance.
Mr Khan suspected a conspiracy with the active collusion of officials of the Education Department. He said that when he enquired with DEO Venkata Narsimha about the demolition of the school, she was not able to give satisfactory replies.
He was astonished that the DEO had no information whether the building was a government or rented property. The Education Department neither had title documents nor did it have a record of payment of rents.
Mr Khan said that the government was silent over the demolition of the property. “It can acquire the property, even it was a private property under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan,” he pointed out.
He alleged that the public representatives of the area were also indirectly supporting the builder. He demanded that the government order a high level inquiry into the matter and verify the title documents of the property.
However, the developer of the property, Mr Mohammed Osman, said he had entered into a development agreement with the absolute owners. He clarified that the School Education Department did not renew the rental agreement since 2017. The department was paying `23,000 per month as rent, which clearly showed that the property was not owned by the government, Mr Osman said. He also clarified that GHMC officials had pasted the demolition notice on the building and consequently the DEO had issued the order for shifting of the school.
District president of Hyderabad Telangana State United Teachers Federation Mr Sanjiva Rao, expressed concern over losing buildings in which government schools functioned.
He said many schools were merged due to the problem of space.
In Charminar and Bahadurpura mandals, more than 60 per cent of government schools were being conducted in private buildings. “It is a fact that the government has lost many properties of Schools due to lack of proper documents and is forced to pay lakhs of rupees as rents for unworthy buildings,” Mr Sanjiva Rao said. He also demanded the government order a high level inquiry into the matter.
