A section of people from Keezhadi and staff of the Government Higher Secondary School in the village have expressed concern over allocation of a portion of land earmarked for the school by the Sivaganga district revenue administration to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for construction of an on-site museum.
S. Sekar, former president of Keezhadi panchayat, said that the school was facing acute space crunch and villagers obtained 4.5 acres of land for a new building after prolonged efforts. “Now, we hear that the revenue administration has allocated two acres of land from this for the on-site museum, which is unfair,” he added.
A senior staff member, speaking on anonymity, said that around 450 students from at least nine surrounding villages were studying in the school, which was started in 1961. “It is functioning in 18 cents of land and many classrooms are in a dilapidated condition,” he said.
Pointing out that the school lacked toilet facilities, he said that boys and girls used toilets constructed by the panchayat more than 200 metres away from the campus. “The school is continuously recording centum pass percentage in Class 10 and Plus Two. More students will join if we get a new campus,” another staff member said.
M. Gunasekaran, former AIADMK MLA of Manamadurai, said that though proposals for construction of a new building for the school were made several times in the past, it got delayed due to non-availability of land. “Then, the villagers, along with me, made a lot of efforts to get this land, which is originally classified as ‘grazing poramboke ’ and belonged to nearby Konthagai panchayat,” he said.
Mr. Sekar said that money was collected through the Parent-Teacher Association to procure land elsewhere and hand it over to the revenue administration to compensate for reclassifying and allocating this land to Keezhadi. “There is more than five acres of poramboke land adjacent to this property, which can be allocated to ASI,” he added.
A group of villagers also raised the issue with MaFoi K. Pandiarajan, Minister for Tamil Official Language, Culture and Archaeology, when he inspected Keezhadi on Tuesday. The revenue officials, who were present, assured the villagers that the land earmarked for the school would not be diverted for other purpose.
