Students take mass leave, seek government land for school

The students of the Government Higher Primary School at Krishnapura in the taluk, took mass leave on Monday and Tuesday, demanding grant of government land for the school.

Tahsildar Shivanagaiah, block education officer P Manjunath, police inspector Keerthikumar and sub-inspector Chikkaraja Shetty visited the village on Tuesday and tried to pacify the agitated villagers. The demand of the residents of the village for one acre and 11 guntas of government waste land (kharabu jameen) adjoining the school, for the school, is an old one. Memoranda has been submitted to the tahsildar, assistant commissioner and deputy commissioner several times earlier. The government has granted only eight guntas of the land for the school, the parents said.

The villagers pointed out that there is a temple on five guntas, a private building on 4 guntas, 12 guntas has been used for a road and only 22 guntas are remaining. They demanded that at least the remaining land be granted for the school as some vested interests were eyeing for the land.

The tahsildar and the BEO assured that the problem would be resolved by conducting a survey on Wednesday itself as there were legal hurdles in the way of granting the land to the school. But, the villagers did not agree. There are 113 students studying in the school from first to seventh standard. The parents took a decision not to send their wards to the school till the issue is resolved. The teachers were taken by surprise when no student turned up at the school on Monday.

The villagers kept their wards out of anganwadis also. There are 19 students at the anganwadi attached to the school and 15 students in the anganwadi run at a private building. All the children were absent. Meanwhile, priest Siddashetty said there have been Shaneshwara, Mahaganapathi, Siddappaji and Bhavani temples on the land from time immemorial. “Free food distribution and free mass marriages are being conducted over the past 34 years. Over 50,000 people gather for the annual fair. There are documents for the grant of the land for the temple from the tahsildar. So there is no question of parting with the land in favour of the school. However, if the local people agree, we are ready to purchase lands adjacent to the school with temple funds and donate them to the school,” he said.