The Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) issued a circular on Thursday and put on hold the plan to merge Hutatma Hirve Guruji Vidyalaya in Panvel with two other Marathi medium schools and shifted them to a newly constructed building. Now, the Hutatma Hirve Guruji Vidyalaya will continue to run the heritage building in Old Panvel.
Advocate Nagesh Hirve, grandson of Hirve Guruji expressed happiness over the decision. “The freedom fighter got the respect that he always deserved,” said Hirve.
As per the circular issued by the PMC, there was a plan to merge three schools namely Saraswati Vidyamandir, Hutatma Hirve Guruji Vidyalaya and Girls School and run them jointly at a newly constructed building at plot number 127 A in Panvel. A proposal was passed in the civic general body on May 24, 2022 to name the new building after late socialist D B Patil. However, there were differences in opinion over the name and thus the civic body has put on hold the merging of Hutatma Hirve Guruji Vidyalaya with two others. Now, Hutatma Hirve Guruji Vidyalaya will run in the existing building with the same name.
On June 1, the Panvel City police had taken the custody of Advocate Nagesh Hirve for allegedly trying to sell immolate outside the PMC building in Panvel. He was demanding that a newly constructed Marathi medium school in Panvel where three schools were to be merged should be named after freedom fighter Hutatma Hirve Guruji Vidyalaya.
Hirve who is the grandson of Hutatma Hirve Guruji had demanded 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 in the Goa Liberation freedom fight in 1955.
PMC Chief Ganesh Deshmukh had told FPJ then that the civic administration has not taken any decision and there is no plan to remove the name of the freedom fighter from the school.
