Calcutta High Court has taken suo moto cognisance of a news channel report on the risk undertaken by students and teachers of a primary school as the school is located near a rapidly eroding river bed. The court has taken note of the precarious condition in which the school is functioning.
The said school is Charkhayramari Primary School at Jirat village in West Bengal's Hooghly district. It is situated adjacent to a river bed which is facing erosion. The court on Tuesday, July 19, directed the village panchayat chief and the Hooghly Primary School Council's chairperson to appear before the court on July 20, before 2 pm, as per a report by PTI.
The court has asked them to explain the situation and propose steps that could be immediately taken to ensure the safety and security of the students and teachers of the school. The direction was given by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who has stated that the court cannot allow students and teachers to function under such hazardous circumstances.
Justice Gangopadhyay said that as per a report in a Bengali news channel, the river flowing beside the school is eroding the adjacent land sizeably every day. He has appointed advocate Sudipta Dasgupta as a special officer in the matter and directed him to communicate the court's order to the council chairperson and the panchayat head, as per PTI.
The court observed that some temporary measures have been taken for checking erosion, but according to the news channel's report, they were not sufficient to avert the risk that threatens the lives of 50 students of the school and their teachers. The court additionally said that the school needs to be shifted to some other safe place.
"We cannot compromise with the lives of the minor students and their teachers. We should not be rising from slumber only after some untoward incident happens," the Judge observed, as noted by PTI.
