Seoni (Madhya Pradesh): A video from Madhya Pradesh's Seoni district has gone viral on the Internet. In the video, school children are seen holding umbrellas inside a classroom to protect themselves from rain water pouring in through the leaking roof.
Seoni is a tribal-dominated district of Madhya Pradesh, bordering Maharashtra.
The Madhya Pradesh government claims that tribal welfare is its priority, but instances such as this are all too common in the state, raising a question mark on their governance record and commitment to tribal welfare.
The video was shot at a government school in Ghansor, a small census town in Seoni district. It shows school kids studying under umbrellas in the classroom as it rains outside, and the roof leaks incessantly.
This primary school is situated at Khairi Kala, just seven kilometers away from the district headquarters. For years, the situation in this school has gone from bad to worse, claim locals.
If the parents are to be believed, most of the school students do not come to school, because the school roof leaks during the monsoon season.
Students studying in the classroom confirmed that roofs in all the rooms of the school are leaking and they have no choice but to bring umbrellas from their homes.
Sidrustam Mansoori, the head of Shala Vikas Samiti, accepted that only a handful of students attend the school, because the roof leaks when it rains heavily. Other parents too admitted that they prefer not sending their wards to school in monsoon.
Principal Mahendra Sharma too affirmed that they had offered a proposal in the BRC office in May, but nothing came of it.
In fact, not only does the roof leak in monsoon, but also on one occasion, a portion of plaster had fallen on the floor, and one of the students had a close shave, according to Sharma.
Manish Bagri, the CEO of the Janpad Panchayat, said that he hasn’t seen the school and will direct the Block Resource Coordinator for carrying out a technical inspection at the building and offer him a report, so that action could be taken to correct this travesty of a situation.
(with inputs from Shiv Choubey)
