Residents of Pazhanchirai village have urged the district administration to remove encroachments from the Adi Dravidar Welfare School campus and pave the way for constructing a new building for the benefit of students.
Led by Thillaiyendal village panchayat president K. Mahalingam, the villagers presented a petition to Collector S. Natarajan here on Monday and urged him to remove a brick-making unit and other encroachments in the four-and-a-half-acre school campus.
Though the Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation (TAHDCO) sanctioned Rs. 41 lakh, the new building could not be constructed as those who were running the bricks unit refused to vacate the place and suggested that it could be constructed elsewhere at a place donated by a Muslim charitable trust for constructing houses for Dalits
Though Tahsildars, over the years, had issued vacate notices to the brick unit owner, he refused to do so, Govindaraj, former vice-president, said. He said the school was started in 1973 as an elementary school and upgraded as higher elementary and recently as high school.
About 80 students were studying in the school functioning in a four-room building. While two rooms were occupied by the Headmaster and staff for keeping records, classes were conducted in two other rooms, he said. Students of Classes One to Five were packed into one room and Classes Five to Ten into another room. Each room measured about 140 sq. ft., he said.
The school had a sprawling space around it when it was started but other buildings started coming up over the years. With the officials turning a blind eye to these developments, the villagers had built two temples on the campus. Later, an anganwadi, public library and magalir thittam building cropped up, he said.
