Raising a stink at BBMP school

Raising a stink at BBMP school


The BBMP High School building at Jogupalya in Bangalore.
Y Maheswara ReddyFirst Published : 21 Oct 2009 03:55:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 21 Oct 2009 07:49:58 AM IST
BANGALORE: As many as 400 students and 25 teachers, 19 of them ladies, and no toilet. That is the situation at the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike High School at Jogupalya.
The BBMP, which spends a lot of money on the maintenance of public toilets, has washed its hands off the ones at this school on the pretext of a lack of water connection.
The toilets have, thus, remained locked for five years now and the lady teachers go to the girls’ school nearby when they need to use the toilet. Unfortunately, the male teachers and students cannot do the same. They either have to rush home or urinate in the open.
“It has become a habit for us to bear with this problem. No one is bothering about providing water connection to the toilets,” said a teacher on condition of anonymity.
“I stay in Abbireddy Palya and thus cannot rush home. I have to urinate in the open near the school,” says a SSLC student.
This is not the only problem. The school, which did not have any student passing the SSLC exams earlier, had 22 out of 84 being successful in 2009 - four of them in first class. Headmistress N Jayanthi Kumari wanted to initiate special classes for SSLC students to increase the success rate. However, the classrooms have no electricity.
“I have brought this to the notice of the authorities and they have promised to do the needful,” she says.
On February 5, the BBMP had written a letter (No. 1558) stating that Rs 15 lakh had been sanctioned for repair works, but nothing has been done till date. BBMP education officer Nischala Prakash said that he had already forwarded a letter to the engineering department to undertake repair work at the school. “I will personally take up the matter with the engineering department to expedite the repair work at the school,” he says.
NA Haris, the MLA of Shanthinagar, says that he was not aware of the toilets in the school being locked because of lack of water. “I am using the MLA fund for the development of schools in my constituency.
I will visit the school shortly and tell the authorities concerned to do the needful,” said Haris.