More than 17K govt schools in K'Taka lack properties in their name

At least half of the government-run schools in the state do not have properties registered in their names.

Incidentally, repeated measures have been taken by the Department of School Education and Literacy, in association with the Revenue department, to register properties in the names of the schools. However, of the 43,564 primary schools in the state, 17,490 schools are yet to get the property documents in their names.

Mandya has the highest number of schools pending for transfer/registration of property documents in their names at 963, followed by Kalaburagi at 875, Chikkamagaluru at 815 and least from Dakshina Kannada district at 76 schools.

As explained by department officials, there were some litigations, filed by private persons, pending before the courts. “In some cases, the land was donated to schools by ancestors and their family members are now claiming the properties back. There are reports of encroachment and the school properties are at risk,” said an official.

However, to avoid grabbing/encroachment of school properties by miscreants, the State Department of School Education and Literacy has organised a property registration campaign to save government school properties, from December 2023 to February 2024.

For this purpose, the department has appointed physical education officers of the districts as nodal officers and these officers have been tasked with submitting the proposals to the district administration regarding school properties.

“In case of encroachment, they must submit a proposal for the removal of encroachment,” the official added.

Once the property is registered/transferred in the name of the school, then the same has to be uploaded on the SATS portal.