Of parched throats, withering trees

Students in this school have been asked to get water from their homes

Hundreds of trees in the premises of this school have dried up. The verdant greenery in Chinmaya Grameena Vidyalaya in Chokkahalli in Kolar taluk school has disappeared.

So also the shade provided by it. Due to lack of water the gooseberry saplings planted in the school premises have vanished. It is one month since the school got its drinking water supply.

Kolar is considered as backward in the field of education and this is especially so in the rural areas.

Hence Chinmaya Mission is striving hard to address this problem through Sandeepany Ashram, Chokkahalli. The Chinmaya Sandeepany Ashram is 8 kms away from Kolar town, and this houses the Chinmaya Grameena Vidyalaya. It provides a platform for the rural children to exhibit their talents.

No response

The headmistress and head of the Chinmaya Sandeepany Ashram made appeals for supply of drinking water from the Zilla Panchayat to the Deputy Commissioner for supply of drinking water. But so far there has been no response.

Chokkahalli, which provides water to most parts of Kolar, is itself reeling under scarcity of water.

There are 439 students and 20 teachers from class I to 10th in the school which comes under the Solur grama panchayat. All of them have been asked to get water from home.

Tanker water which is brought every day is not enough for the school.

This problem has been persisting for the last one month, says Manjula Bhimarao, the headmistress.

“A pipe connection was given to the school from the borewell which supplied water to the village. The connection was removed as some villagers could not get enough water because of this connection. Many children of these villages study in these school”, she said.

“Every year during January the problem of water scarcity begins. The borewell of the Chinmaya Sandeepany Ashram has also dried up. Under such circumstances, the villagers need to co-operate”, she added.