Age does not deter her from serving the society as the 85-year-old retired headmistress, T.A. Ponmani Devi, donated her 93 cent land worth ₹4 crore to the Government Girls Higher Secondary School at Chithode.
At a function held at the school on Saturday, she handed over the documents to Minister for School Education K.A. Sengottaiyan in the presence of MLAs K.S. Thennarasu and K.V. Ramalingam. Started as a Board Middle School on December 5, 1948, the school was upgraded as higher secondary last year. Currently, 486 students pursue studies from Class VI to XI while there are 37 teachers.
A.G. Parameswari, headmistress, told The Hindu that the present 16 classrooms were inadequate to meet the requirements as the school needed 20 additional classrooms. “We took up the issue with Ms. Devi, who initially contributed ₹2 lakh for applying for upgrading the school and later donated the land.”
A native of Tirupur and a Tamil teacher, she lost her husband and her son and is currently taken care of by her family members and relatives. She had already donated 25,000 sq ft land in which the hostel for backward students was constructed at Chithode. Since she could not speak, her close family members said that she contributed funds for the welfare of common people, particularly students.
Document
The land is located about 800 metres from the school and the document was registered in the name of Public Works Department and handed over to the Minister, who felicitated her on the occasion.
The Minister said that funds were sought from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development for constructing the building on the new land. However, officials said that it is yet to be decide whether additional classrooms will be constructed or the present school will be relocated.
