A school for scandal

Govt School Rasoolpura is functioning (?) without light, fans & water. Toilets are dysfunctional and little kids defecate in the open. All because power supply has been cut off as the school has not paid electricity bills amounting to Rs 9,000. The Education Department held back the payment as it was head over heels over bifurcation issues. The bifurcation is over and a new government has been elected to power. But the fate of the school children is no better. This is despite the Central Government making Right to Education mandatory and the new State Government offering free education from KG to PG !

For the past three weeks, around 750 students of the Government High School, Rasoolpura, are braving scorching heat and foul smell. Fans and lights in the school premises aren’t working and there is no water in the toilets. Hapless students have no choice but to defecate in the open. The school is living in darkness as the electricity department had cut off the power over non-payment of dues.

Officials from the electricity department said that the school had dues to the extent of Rs 9,000 and going by the rule book they had to cut off power.

The school premises house two buildings; the secondary block and the primary block. Both these buildings receive separate electricity bills. Apparently, dues of the secondary block were cleared but not of the primary block. According to the school authorities “we did not receive any bill from the electricity department for the primary school. And out of the blue, without proper intimation or even serving a notice, power was cut off not only for the primary block but the entire school premises.”

The power supply was cut off in the month of May and the school authorities cared a hoot, stating vacations.

Members of Basti Vikas Manch (BVM), a NGO which works for the development of people in slums, say that if the school authorities were alert this wouldn’t have happened. “We went along with the school authorities to meet the DEO, Subba Reddy, and gave a representation. He said that he had cleared the file but it was lying with the clearance section. They had not made the payment because the department was busy with the bifurcation issues and until those issues were solved, the payment would be held back,” informed Shaik Nayeem, a representative of the BVM.

The toilets in the school were defunct and students used to defecate in the dumpyard next to the school until March 2014. It was due to the efforts of the BVM, the residents and parents, the toilets were refurbished and opened, only to go back to the initial stage three months later.

Ironically, the US Consulate-General, Michael Mullins, had visited the school on March 21, 2014, and had praised the water conservation efforts by the students.