Official apathy hits blind school

• Works on new building stopped nine months back
• Only pillars raised; Govt had sanctioned `1.53 cr

Darulshifa: The snail pace construction of the Government School for Blind (boys) at Darulshifa cries for official attention. It has been more than nine months since the work was stopped. Once schools re-open the visually impaired students may be left with no option, but to stay in classrooms for boarding, as before lockdown, the old hostel was razed to build a new one. Besides, after the government sanctioned Rs 1.53 crore never materialised.

As a part of the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the 80-year-old blind school, which was the world's best such institution in yesteryears, was located in Darulshifa. The State government sanctioned Rs 1.53 crore for the new buildings, housing both hostel and classrooms.

According to headmaster K Venkatramulu, the work was started this year in February. Officials promised to complete the construction of hostel and classrooms by the year-end, but still no further work was done since March after the pillars were raised.

"It was a gift from the then Hyderabad district collector Yogita Rana, during a visit to school. She sanctioned Rs 1.5 crore for its development. The school was razed for a new building. After three months of lockdown the work could start, but was left without any further progress," he said.

"It has been more than nine months since the construction was stopped. If schools re-open the visually impaired students may stay in classrooms, as they used to before lockdown. During these nine months of school closure, observing pandemic, negligence of the government kept the institution incomplete," said K Venkatesh, a senior Congress leader from Old City.

He noted "as the old structure was razed two years back to build a new hostel and classrooms, the foundation stone was laid in February 2019 by the local MLA. Since then only pillars were raised and no further work was done even during the lockdown, despite the government taking up several development works. The department concerned must take a serious note of the delay in the construction and take up the work at the earliest."

History of the school

The school was established in 1939 by the Nizam. It was named in Persian, 'Madarsa Barai-KoKar-WaGum'. Later it was changed as Government School for Blind. In its first decade, the institution became one of the best in the world.

In 1952 principal K Ramchandra Rao was invited to France for honouring Louis Braille posthumously. Inspired by Its success, Egypt also started its first blind school. In 1954, as a part of a world tour, Helen Keller (an American educator who overcame the adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century leading humanitarians), visited Hyderabad. The school was added to the list of world's best.