There are many cases of parents taking to the warpath while dealing with insalubrious and dangerous conditions around the schools their children went to.
After numerous representations to the police and the Corporation, the Parent-Teacher Association of Sita Ram Vidyalaya, West Mambalam, was successful in getting closed two roadside eateries in the vicinity of the school.
“After five years of struggle, the eateries were removed. The owners were fined by the mobile court. Now, beat officers are patrolling the area everyday,” says V. Chandramowleeswaran, a former PTA member.
The vendors had set up shop near the main gate of the school, making it difficult for the children to alight from vehicles. Also, food waste was being thrown on the road, making the place unhygienic. It also caused traffic snarls in the neighbourhood. So acute was the problem that the school had to close the main gate and the children were using a smaller gate on the adjoining street.
“Now a garden is being planned along the compound wall of the school to discourage similar encroachments,” he says. At Dr. Besant Road in Triplicane, parents and teachers have made many representations to the local body requesting that the dustbins outside the Chennai Primary School be shifted.
A small section of parents and teachers continue to fight for the removal of a transformer close to the Pallavaram Municipality Higher Secondary School, Hastinapuram. “The rear side of PSBB School at K.K. Nagar is the place where vans and mini-buses find convenient parking. People use this place as a urinal. Also, two dustbins placed there overflow most of the time,” says Gayathri, a parent.
