Encroachment of land allotted for the construction of new buildings for a tribal school atop the Jawadhu Hills has caused a lot of difficulties for the students. The Government Tribal Residential (GTR) Middle School, located at Arasaveli, atop the Hills, was allotted 5.54 acres of land for construction of school buildings and playground way back in 2012. The Revenue department had allotted the land at Bargur village located near Arasaveli and transferred it to RMSA under the School Education department, sources said.
Even as the land has been encroached by certain local villagers who are cultivating crops, the students of the GTR Middle School at Arasaveli have been suffering from space crunch and lack of a playground. It has a strength of 382 students, the sources noted, adding, a new building that was constructed to replace the old one does not have adequate space for the tribal children. Poor sanitation is another problem haunting the poor children.Even after the State Government issued a GO upgrading the middle school into high school last year, the authorities concerned remain callous and lethargic in retrieving the land for raising necessary infrastructure in consummate with the requirements of a high school.
Following a recent report in TNIE on the infrastructure woes, officials of the Tribal Welfare and Revenue departments have visited the GTR Middle School and discussed with the administration on infrastructure required for an upgrade. An official team, consisting of Project Officer of Tribal Welfare department, Elango, Jamunamarathur Tahsildar Venkatesan and Acting Head Mistress Regina Mary, visited the site at Bargur Wednesday."We have visited the site on Wednesday. Steps for retrieving the land to construct building as part of the upgrade have been initiated," Elango said. A survey was done to measure the extent of the land in the presence of the officials.
Classrooms and hostels for children will be part of the infrastructure to be raised on the site. Meanwhile, the local villagers who have been encroaching upon the said land are attempting to scuttle the move to retrieve the land. Revenue department officials said they can take action to evict the encroachments only if they are formally requested."If only we get a formal request from the concerned department (Tribal Welfare), we will take steps to clear the encroachment. We haven't yet received any such request so far," said Jamunamarathur Tahsildar Venkatesan.
The Project Officer of Tribal Welfare Elango stated that the department is yet to take steps to retrieve the land through Revenue department. He promised, "We will shortly hand over a formal request to the Revenue department in this regard. The land will be retrieved in a week's time."
