KOZHIKODE: The State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) is likely to issue a temporary stop memo against allotting a portion of the sports ground of the Government Technical High School, West Hill to P. T. Usha.
According to sources, KSCPCR member Naseer Chaliyum, who visited the spot on Wednesday, was convinced abount the “attempt to encroach on the playground of students” to construct a house for Ms Usha.
“The commission collected the opinions of all stakeholders, including school authorities, PTA, children and local residents,” Mr Naseer Chaliyum told DC. “We are awaiting the explanation from the technical education department and officials of the education department.”
According to him, the school did not have the requisite space of a playground as stipulated in Kerala Education Rules (KER). KSCPCR was approached by the school parents teacher association (PTA) to stop the encroachment of school playground which had been used by the students of technical HSS, government polytechnic college and government engineering college, besides sports clubs and residents’ associations nearby.
“The school has only 1.43 acres which is less than required for our purposes. None is against doling out land for a legendary sports-person like Ms Usha to construct a house in the city. But the selection of the land is in bad taste,” said a senior official in the technical school, who requested anonymity.
In July 2015, the technical education secretary had asked the opinion of school superintendent whether there would be 5 cents of land available for the purpose for which the superintendent had replied in the negative.
“According to rules, a technical school requires a minimum of three acres of land. But we have only 1.43 acres here,” said school superintendent Radhamani. Confusion prevails over which portion of the land is originally earmarked for Ms Usha. But according to the land records at Kacheri village, the playground comes under the said survey number.
