It was a battle of the orphans, by the orphans, and for the orphans, against the mighty Telangana State government. And the orphans have won.
The victory was celebrated with distribution of sweets at the Victoria Memorial Home Residential School (VM Home), Saroornagar, as soon as the High Court judgment came favouring the VM Home Orphans’ Land Protection Struggle Committee on Tuesday.
Though backed by various Left parties and students’ organisations, the movement against land allotment to the Rachakonda Police Commissionerate owes its triumph mainly to the Alumni Association of the VM Home — all its members orphans and pass-outs from the 114-year-old institution set up by Sixth Nizam Mir Mahboob Ali Khan.
With a strength of about 400 ex-students, of whom hardly 50 are in active years of their life, the association nevertheless dared to challenge the State government over its arbitrary decision to allot land to the Rachakonda Police Commissionerate. “We fought a hard battle. Only 10 to 15 members contributed money, which sufficed only for part payment to the lawyer,” says L. Butchi Reddy, president of the Association.
Mr. Reddy passed out of the school in 1970, where he was admitted at the age of eight, after his father committed suicide unable to pay off farm debts. He later went on to serve and retired as a teacher in Jawahar Navodaya schools. All members have such poignant past, as only orphans and semi-orphans are ever admitted into the school.
“I lost both my parents at an early age. The school had been my mother till I left it in 1980,” V. Raghuramulu, who runs a grocery store nearby, recalled choking with emotion. Mr. Raghuramulu and many other members want the school to be developed as a post-graduate centre, if not university.
“We shall continue our struggle till the school is developed and its lands are fully put to academic use. As of now, the children are not getting proper education, ending up on roads after Class X. They should be given opportunity for further studies within the premises,” says Mr. Butchi Reddy.
Co-convenor of the Association B. Maheshwar says the school woefully lacks in teaching staff, which has to be addressed immediately. “We are also planning to launch a struggle for getting back the lands earlier allotted to Rythu Bazar and Reliance fuel station. Moreover, about 20 acres of the Home’s lands are under illegal encroachment. We are demanding a fresh survey to be done,” he said.
