Fate of historic NTMS continues to hang in balance

The future of one of the oldest schools in the State, New Type Model School, Mysore continues to hang in balance, following a letter by the Commissioner, Department of Public Instruction to the deputy director of the department of the district.

In the letter dated May 3, the deputy director has been instructed to take steps to facilitate the transfer of NTMS to Ramakrishna Ashram. The letter has not only raised concerns among the parents of children studying in the school, but has also irked activists, who have vehemently protested the decision in the past. The letter also noted that NTMS property has been ‘conditionally registered’ to the Ashram, by the assistant revenue officer, Mysore on May 7, 2013.

Deparment officials, however, said that no decision has been taken yet to transfer NTMS and shift the students to nearby Devaraj Government School. Speaking to Deccan Herald, DDPI, H R Basappa said that there was no clarity on the School continuing to be operation from the next academic year. “It will be premature to comment about this. We will have a clear picture about the issue in a week’s time,” he said. He added that a meeting of the department will be convened shortly, where the issue is likely to come up.

Meanwhile, activists under the aegis of Kannada Kriya Samithi have alleged that officials of the department were hand in gloves with Ramakrishna Ashram to facilitate the ‘free’ transfer of government property and were hiding facts to mislead the general public about the issue.

General secretary of the Committee, S R Sudarshan said that instructions for transfer of property had been given, despite a civil suit being filed at the Fifth Civil Court of Mysore.
“The Court has taken up the matter and sought clarifications from Commissioner of the department, apart from other officials concerned. Though there was a hearing last month, officials did not appear to record the statements,” he said.

NTMS is located in a total of 36,591.66 square foot land and was set up in 1881.

A cabinet decision was taken during the tenure of BJP government to transfer NTMS school and the adjoining BRC building to the Ashram, to set up a Vivekananda Memorial at the location.

After widespread protests, the department decided to hold the cabinet decision under abeyance. Zilla Panchayat of Mysore had also written to the State government, seeking it not to transfer the 134 year old school to the Ashram.

Even the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had opposed the transfer and had said that he would not allow the transfer, as long as he was in power.