While the BMC is busy issuing notices to private schools in dilapidated buildings; its own school in Powai has put 3,000 children at risk, thanks to official apathy
Paspoli School's entrance. Pic/Datta Kumbhar
The BMC has refused to shift 3,000 students in a dilapidated four-storey municipal school in Powai despite repeated pleas from the teachers. As the accompanying photos show, the civic body is content with placing iron bars to support the crumbling structure.
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Parents of students studying in Paspoli Municipal School in Powai have seen the structure go from bad to worse over the last three years. Some time this March, a chunk of concrete slab fell perilously close to a nursery student.
Iron bars propping up a classroom
"The very next day I visited the school and spoke to the headmaster," said the student's parent, who did not want to be identified. "He assured that the BMC will carry out repair work. But recently, they put up 70 iron bars in the ground floor classrooms and made some areas out of bounds to the students. How can that guarantee our children's safety?"
Three-year ordeal
Fed up of civic inaction over three years, the parents on August 3 approached Education Minister Vinod Tawde to lodge a complaint against BMC officials. The school operates classes in Urdu, Hindi and Marathi mediums. One of the three principals told mid-day on condition of anonymity that the structure has been worsening but the BMC has not been able to find an alternative to house the children.
Iron bars in the corridor; certain places have been declared no-go areas for the kids
"Two years back, we approached the BMC requesting that the structure be repaired," said a principal. "Since then the assigned engineers are visiting school for auditing the structure. We have more than 3,000 students. Hence it is difficult to shift them. However for the safety of children BMC has placed iron bars on the ground floor."
A local activist said several of the 3,000 parents cannot even afford to send their children to a private school.
"They are from poor families," said Pawan Pai, the activist who helped the parents meet Tawde. "They cannot afford to send their children in private school. When I visited the school I was shocked to see the entire place covered with iron props with children playing around them."
Iron bars holding up a wall in the school
Another parent said that cracks have developed in several class rooms and on corridors. "We are very scared of sending our children to the school," said one of them.
Nowhere to go
Those who can are shifting their children to other schools. But not all parents can afford to do that. A parent who works at a petrol pump has three children studying in the school. He earns R11,000 a month and has managed to shift two of his children to a private Hindi medium school.
"Looking at the condition of the school, I have shifted two children to a private school," he said, requesting that he not be named. "The fee is R500 per child per month. I don't have money left to shift my third child to the private school."
When mid-day questioned the BMC education officer Mahesh Palkar, he claimed that the building is only partially dilapidated.
"We have put up iron rods everywhere and have prohibited the children from some areas," said Palkar. "We have been seeking land from the adjoining Ambedkar Garden for the last three years for a new structure."
While he has not heard back from the Garden Department about his request, Palkar did not say what will happen to the children in the meanwhile. "There is no nearby structure that can accommodate so many children."
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