SECOND WRIT PETITION filed by PARENTS to come up for final hearing before THE HIGH COURT NEXT MONTH
PANAJI
For close to two decades now, the residential school complex building of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Valpoi has been in need of urgent repairs with serious structural measures suggested in the inspection report prepared by P Jacob Varughese, Executive Engineer, NVS, RO, Pune.
What's more, the land belonging to the school is under litigation with the High Court of Bombay at Panaji in the year 2006 directing the JNV authorities not to change the ‘Status Quo in the area nor induct any third party'.
The consecutive state governments totally failed to convince the Court about their ownership of the land which they have allotted to the school for almost 11 years now.
The long pendency of the said interim order has led to such a situation now that parents are quite concerned about the safety of their wards. The JNV school authorities are not in the position to convince the parents, nor can they do much in the matter either as the matter pertaining to land has to be resolved by the state administration, which does not seem to be too serious or sensible regarding the issue.
Earlier, in the year 2014, some parents of the students studying at JNV, Valpoi had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) requesting the High Court to direct the various authorities concerned to undertake urgent repair work of the school buildings. The state government, MHRD (New Delhi) and JNV, Samiti (Noida) had been named as respondents.
Then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar intervened in the matter and instructed GSIDC to inspect the school. GSIDC carried out some minor urgent repairs under the pretext of the children's life being in danger, but that was mere first-aid relief as the entire structural repair works and other safety preventive measure works are still caught up in the interim order.
Now, since all the concerned authorities have failed to come to a conclusion and the court has stuck to the interim order, the parents of the students studying at JNV, Valpoi have filed yet another writ petition in the High Court of Bombay at Goa.
The parents, in the petition, have asked for interim orders to be given for repair of the existing school building and for provision of emergency services. The parents also stated that the school building is in a "very poor state, endangering the lives of the students."
The petition also hinted on the stay order which has led to the school complex becoming totally inhabitable and unsafe. The parents also asked the court to "direct constitution of a high powered committee to identify an alternate suitable land within a radius of around 8 km from the existing school complex for the purpose of shifting JNV, Valpoi and submit a report to this court within two weeks or any other time frame that may be fixed by this court."
"The petition was admitted long back, and will now come up for final hearing during the first week of October. The court may also give judgement on the appeal pending before them as the matter is urgent in nature," advocate S N Joshi, representing the parents, told The Goan Everyday.
"Former Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane has been instrumental in setting up this institution here," said Subhodh Desai, PTA representative of JNV, Valpoi.
Adding further he said, "It was Rane who managed to hand over this land for the school at Massordem. Unfortunately, the land went in to litigation, and Rane failed to intervene in the matter. We as parents were hoping that our present Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar would help pave the way, but it was all in vain and we were forced to approach the Court for the sake of the safety of our kids. We had many meetings with Parrikar, and even submitted memorandums to former MHRD Minister Smriti Irani and present Minister Prakash Jawdekar."
"We thought that we would get relief as at both Centre and state BJP is ruling. This political combination has not benefited us at all. Now since Valpoi MLA and Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane is part of the Cabinet under the leadership of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, they will intervene here and seriously look into the matter and resolve this issue forever," stated Dessai while speaking to The Goan.
