A new survey in Chennai has revealed that 62 Corporation schools have been closed down in the last one year. The survey on Status of Closure of Government Schools in Tamil Nadu, which was carried out by Child Rights and You (CRY), found that even as private schools are mushrooming in the city, the number of corporation schools is going down.

The survey was conducted over a period of one year by CRY in association with NGOs under the Sama Kalvi Iyyakam - Tamil Nadu. The survey pointed out that several neighbourhood schools, especially primary and middle schools, were shut down in the past one year.

“A total of 62 schools were shut down in the last one year, according to our survey. The significant point is that the government refuses to use the word ‘shut down’ and instead says that the schools have been ‘upgraded’. This effectively means that if there are two lower level schools like a primary or a middle school, then one of them would be upgraded to a higher level like high school or higher secondary school, while the other school would be shut down. The school which is shut down would  be called ‘upgraded’ even as the school building is shut down,” said Sarah Ramya, manager, CRY-Tamil Nadu.

However, officials of the Chennai Corporation have denied any such move. “In the past two years, we have not shut down any school,” said a senior official with the Education Department of the Chennai Corporation.

The Corporation had earlier in the year discussed the possibility of merging schools, which have low enrollments. In fact, 56 schools have been merged between 1999-2011.

According to the Corporation officials, such mergers help in concentrating resources on well-functioning schools.

But education activists say that absence of schools in the neighbourhood is one of the main reasons for dropouts and child labour.

An earlier survey by CRY had pointed out that in areas like North Chennai, children lose interest in going to school when they have to walk for 2-3 kilometres. This, coupled with the economic pressure, results in dropouts and child labour.

Others argue that the answer to lack of enrolment in government schools should be overcome by enhancing the quality and infrastructure rather than shutting down the schools.

“The reason why parents are not sending their children to these schools is lack of quality. Many have one teacher to teach multiple classes and subjects. There are no proper sanitation facilities and in the absence of staff to perform cleaning, office duty, etc., the teacher is forced to take her time off from the classes and attend to these. So, the Corporation has the responsibility to improve this condition. Instead they shut down the schools,” said P B Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of the State Platform for Common School System.

Residents of 79 apartments in a building in Tiruvanmiyur are in a state of shock after the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) served them a ‘locking and sealing & demolition notice’, as the builder had reportedly failed to pay an infrastructure development and amenities fees of `44 lakh to the agency. Residents of Ramaneeyam Samarpann Apartments in Thiruvanmiyur told Express that on November 27, 2013, the CMDA officials pasted a demolition notice, besides handing out the notice to the secretary, to be circulated among the residents. The residents said that the builder, besides failing to pay the infrastructure and amenities charges, also constructed two dwelling units illegally. “He kept us in dark about the whole thing,” said a resident on condition of anonymity.

The residents felt that the CMDA’s action against them in issuing the notice was unfair. “They should have taken action against the builder. How do we know that he has not paid the infrastructure and amenities charges?” asked a resident.

According to the notice, the builder obtained the approval in 2008 for 77 dwelling units. He had also applied for completion certificate in 2010. However, instead of remitting the infrastructure and amentities charges, he had gone for a court order dated June 2010, without insisting on a completion certificate from CMDA. But this does not absolve him from paying the infrastructure and amenities charges. After several reminders, including the one in 2010, the lock and seal and demolition notice had been issued.

“The builder has not paid infrastructure and amenities charges. The residents have given a reply in writing to the lock and seal notice. We are going through it,” said a senior CMDA official. The builder was not available for comments.

Also, this is not an isolated case. Since 2007, several builders, to avoid paying infrastructure and amenities charges, have gone to court to obtain water and power connections without insisting on a completion certificate from CMDA, said sources. Also, the sub-committee of the monitoring committee in CMDA had already identified such erring builders.

M G Deivasahayam, managing trustee of the Chennai-based Citizens Alliance for Sustainable Living (SUSTAIN) and a member of the Monitoring Committee, said that the file in this regard was still awaiting clearance, thus putting many buyers of flats at risk. “The monitoring committee is not being allowed to perform its duties,” he said. The committee had suggested that the habitual violators needed to be identified and security deposit be collected as multiple of the security deposit normally collectable while issuing planning permission.

The CMDA is yet to take action against the officials in connection with expiry of bank guarantees worth more than `3.77 crore, after the government sought an ‘Action Taken Report’ on the audit reports starting from 2006 to 2009-10, that highlighted the lapses.

Sources said that the government was losing several crore of rupees due to non-collection of infrastructure and amenties charges and lapse of bank guarantees towards remittance of security deposit to get planning permission. The CMDA issues ‘locking and sealing & demolition notices’ to builders who flout norms.