Minority school in tents, asks for free land

New Delhi, Mar 28 (UNI) A 57-year-old school, established by a minority social organisation, today filed a petition with the Delhi High Court seeking the direction to the government to allot a piece of land to construct a concrete structure.

Disturbed by photographs depicting the pitiable condition of the students under torn tents, a division bench of Chief Justice M K Sarma and Justice Sanjiv Khanna asked, ''How could the authorities be so insensitive to the children?'' When the Counsel for the Delhi Development Authority(DDA), the land owning agency, defended the government, the court observed, ''You identify with your client, but do not perform your duty as an officer of the court. Be sensitive to the problems.'' ''There is no proper building, no books, no copy, no black board.

How could you build the students for the future?'' observed the court directing the Delhi government, DDA and Directorate of Education to file their replies in four weeks.

The Qaumi Senior Secondary School was established at Sadar Bazar near Bada Hindu Rao 57 years back to teach the children of the minority community and weaker sections of the society, said Firoz Bakht Ahmed of Friends for Education in the petition.

The school has been running from the lawns of the Eidgah at Jhandewalan Extension in Central Delhi since the building was demolished by the government in 1976 during the emergency, said counsel M Atyab Siddiqui.

''The school is a tented structure without having even the basic facilities. About 600 students, mostly from the minority community, are studying in the school funded by the Director of Education.'' ''Braving the vagaries of weather inclusive of dust storms, pouring rains, chilly winters and scorching heat, the school operates for the past 31 years with make-shift laboratory, moth-eaten furniture under the leaking tarpaulins,'' said the petition.

The DDA submitted that the school was allotted 2556 sq yards of land in 2001 at a concessional rate but the allottment was cancelled as the school authorities did not pay the amount of about Rs 1.5 crore.

UNI