Members of All School Parents Association met the vice-chairman of Ghaziabad Development Authority over issues such as utilisation of land and reservation for children below poverty line.
After conducting a string of activities against fee hikes and unexplained charges, Ghaziabad parents have now launched another offensive against private schools. Members of All School Parents Association in Ghaziabad met Kanchan Verma, vice-chairman (VC) of Ghaziabad Development Authority, on May 15 over a host of issues against privately run schools who had acquired land from the Authority.
Shivani Jain, president of ASPA, told City Spidey said that such schools procure land from the Authority at lower rates on a no profit and no loss basis. “During the procurement of land, several agreements are made between GDA and the schools to reserve 10 per cent of the school’s seats for children living below poverty line [BPL], and also providing them education at 50 percent discount of the total cost. Being profit centric, none of the schools follow the agreements and have no such reservation policy,” said Jain.
However, Jain said that the schools of different levels get land allotted according to their levels. “Different schools, such as primary school and polytechnic, get their land according to their purpose. After getting the land, the school authorities start running junior high schools, high schools and even intermediate colleges on the land that was originally allotted for a different purpose. Some of the schools have even set up mobile network towers on their buildings,” Jain said.
Jain said that according to a judgment by the Supreme Court, schools cannot conduct construction work in the premises while conducting classes. Several schools in Indirapuram, Vasundhara and many other places in the district have carried out construction and expansion work with school children moving around in the premises. This is a clear violation of the order,” Jain added.
Speaking about the meeting with the VC, Sachin Soni, general secretary of ASPA, said that it was a fruitful meeting as the VC assured them of appropriate action. “The VC told us that investigation of issues such as utilisation of land and reservation for BPL children is already underway, and assured that violation of the Supreme Court’s guidelines will also be investigated,” Soni added.
The vice-chairman was not available for comment.
The meeting in progress
