The Government High School in Avaniyapuram, which has been functioning since 1964, is plagued with encroachments and has become a safe haven for anti-social elements with the absence of a compound wall for the campus, say activists.
Submitting a petition Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao on Monday, youngsters associated with Satta Panchayat Iyakkam (SPI) alleged that the school campus was often strewn with liquor bottles, indicating rampant drug and alcohol abuse inside the campus during nights and on holidays.
P. Rajkumar, one of the petitioners, alleged that it had become difficult for the school staff to regulate the movement of outsiders inside the campus.
“With the administration failing to properly fence the property, a realtor has even laid a road through a portion of the campus to access between houses located on one side of the school campus and the Avaniyapuram to Villapuram road,” he alleged.
Stating that around 120 children were studying from Class 6 to 10 in the school, a teacher, speaking on anonymity, said that it had almost become a regular duty for the staff and students to remove the liquor bottles and cigarette buds found in and around the class buildings.
“There have also been instances of men urinating near the classrooms and damaging the doors and windows. They even remove the iron rods fitted in the windows,” the teacher alleged.
She also said that a few commercial buildings and houses had been built by partially encroaching upon the school campus, which spread over roughly six acres.
“The revenue administration should first survey the property and remove these encroachments. However, multiple petitions made by us to the administration have failed to evoke any response,” she added.
Pointing out that the school could be converted into a model school with a sprawling ground for sports activities, members of SPI on Monday urged the Collector to take swift action on the issue.
When contacted, a senior official from the School Education Department said that a proposal had been made for constructing a teachers’ home, with hostel and conference hall facilities to provide training for staff, inside the school campus.
“We are expecting funds to be sanctioned soon. Once that begins, all the issues relating to encroachments and safety will be sorted out,” he said.
