Panvel City police took custody of Advocate Nagesh Hirve for allegedly trying to sell immolate outside the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) building in Panvel on Wednesday afternoon. He was demanding that a newly constructed Marathi medium school in Panvel should be named after freedom fighter Hutatma Hirve Guruji Vidyalaya.
Hirve had given a letter to the civic administration regarding his demand on May 31 and was given a June 1 deadline to make a decision. He alleged that since he did not get any positive response from civic administration, he was forced to take the drastic step. He allegedly tried to immolate himself by pouring Kerosene oil. However, the police presence over there prevented him from immolating himself. They took him to the police station for counseling. Later he was released after serving a notice under section 309 of IPC
Advocate Hirve alleged that the general body of PMC passed a proposal to merge Hutatma Hirve Guruji Jeevan Shikshan Vidyamandir, Saraswati Vidyalaya, and Girls School, and shift all students to a newly constructed school in the city. The civic administration is also constructing an English medium school adjoining the new building where the civic body will start its first English medium school.
The civic general body passed another proposal to name both newly constructed English medium and Marathi medium schools after late socialist D B Patil.
However, Hirve who is the grandson of Hutatma Hirve Guruji demands that the name of the Marathi school created after merging the three schools should be after his grandfather and freedom fighter Hutatma Hirve Guruji. “Guruji died while fighting at the Goa Liberation freedom fight in 1955. The school building was one of the centre of the freedom struggle in India. Senior leaders of that time used to visit the premises where Guruji was also a teacher. I have no problem with the name of the English school after the late socialist D B Patil. But the Marathi medium school which has been merged with other two schools should be given after fighter Hutatma Hirve Guruji,” said Hirve.
When FPJ contacted Ganesh Deshmukh, the municipal commissioner of PMC, he said that the administration has not taken any decision regarding the naming of the school. “A proposal has been passed by the civic general body. But there is no such decision by the civic administration. I had given assurance but he exaggerated the issue unnecessarily,” said Deshmukh. He added that the civic administration has not even taken any decision to remove the name of the freedom fighter from the school.
