Ranjit Mahanti
THE Bharat Ratna Govind Vallabh Pant (BRGVP) School at Ghatkopar doesn’t bother to pay heed to Brihanmumbai Municipal Council (BMC) notices. The BMC recently issued notices to shut the school as it is totally illegal, and running for the last seven years.
On July 12, 2014 the education department in BMC L-ward issued notice (copy available with ABI) to the school management ordering to shut the school with immediate effect and shift students to other schools. Notice states that the school should be shutdown in eight days and management should reply in two days. The BMC has also warned the management that if school fails to obey the order, it will be liable to pay Rs. 1, 00,000 penalties with an addition of Rs. 10,000 fine per day.
The English medium Bharat Ratna Govind Vallabh School at Asalfa Village in Ghatkopar (west) is running for the last seven years. The school is running nursery to 7th class.
Two Right to Information (RTI) activists Rajendra Joshi and Avinash Joshi who work under Swastik Mitra Mandal NGO exposed the illegalities of the school. The ‘Joshi brothers’ had received complaints of parents that school management has appointed illiterate teachers. The teachers have no sense of education and misbehave with students. They also came to know that fifth, sixth and seventh standard students are being taught in a common classroom.
“This is very shocking that management has no permission for running the school. The management has No NOC from education department, no NOC from fire brigade and no NOC for constructing the structure,” said Rajendra Joshi and Avinash Joshi.
The Joshi brothers obtained documents through RTI and found shocking reply. Below are the facts of the school:
1- The school has been constructed on ground reserved for BMC playground.
2- The school has no NOC from BMC for constructing the structures.
3- The education department of BMC has not given NOC (permission) to run the school.
4- School has no NOC of the fire brigade department. In 2013 fire brigade officials had inspected the school and submitted report to the education department in BMC L-ward.
5- The school is running on place of Balwadi as in year 2009-2010 the foundation was laid for Balwadi only.
6- Surprisingly, School has no bank account.
7- The school has not been audited since seven years.
8- The school pays salaries in cash to the staff.
9- The BMC record shows that there are 214 students in the school but school record claims about 400 students.
The school failed to obey BMC’s first notice. Besides taking any action on school, on September 3, 2014 BMC issued second notice to the school. Sources said education officer Vishwas Rokde pocketed the notice and never served it to the school. ABI (abinet.org) is in possession of second notice.
Joshi brothers are complaining against the school for a year but BMC is busy only issuing notices.
Speaking to ABI, one of the trustees Rajendra Bhandari confirms that management has received the BMC shutdown notice. “We have challenged the notice in court,” said Bhandari.
After repeated attempts education officers Vishwas Rokde and Ram Kulkarni were not available for comments.
Criminal complain should be filed against management for cheating innocent students n their parents
get the hell out of our ground