Chennai: The great-grandsons of a former councillor of Madras corporation have been fighting for nearly a decade to restore their great-grandfather’s name to a Chennai corporation school that he had constructed and donated in West Mambalam.
In a place where real estate is skyrocketing the least that the corporation can do is honour the people who donated the school, says the family. “The first time this happened was in 1995 when the corporation changed the names of all schools.
The headmistress then understood the need and changed the name back to Damodaran Aarambapalli,” says ML Venkataswamy, one of the great-grandsons. In 2010, however, a resolution was passed to remove “corporation” from the school name. “Since then, they have removed name his too,” says Venkataswamy.
The only reason that’s stopping the corporation from changing the name is red tape, they say. In fact, the minister for school education even encouraged people to adopt schools in the city. In such a time, A philanthropist who gave his land and building to the corporation is being discouraged. Further, Venkataswamy also pointed out that these actions would demotivate donors from doing good to society.
“I have written several letters to the deputy commissioner (Education) but no action has been taken ,” he says, adding that when someone donated an RO water plant to the school, they got a big stone engraved near the entrance with the names of all the donors but they have removed the name of the person who donated the whole school.
The family, however, continues to supply books to all students and also distribute prizes by the end of the year. “We have been doing this for 25 years, and we do these for the children, so we won't stop. But we want the name back,” he says. Now, Venkataswamy says he will go to court if no action is taken soon. The corporation officials unaware of the situation refused to comment.
