BHOPAL: A senior advocate’s lone battle against the influential encroachers of a school playground in Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh has finally yielded results.
The state government has informed the Madhya Pradesh high court that the playground of the Government Excellence Higher Secondary School, Vidisha, was cleared of encroachment and handed over to the authorities concerned.
Following this, the high court on Wednesday disposed of the petition filed by senior advocate Pavan Singh Raghuvanshi seeking action against the encroachers.
“Playgrounds attached to government schools form an integral part of government infrastructure and are necessary for the physical and overall development of students. The right to education under Article 21-A of the Constitution cannot be confined merely to the availability of classrooms, but necessarily includes access to requisite school infrastructure and facilities”, Mr. Raghuvanshi, a practicing lawyer in the Gwalior bench of Madhya Pradesh high court, told this newspaper on Thursday.
Mr. Raghuvanshi, a product of the half-a-century-old school, said that he was pained to learn about encroachment of the school playground, which catered to the sports needs of 1,200 students, by some ‘very influential people’ and vowed to free the school playground of encroachment in the interest of the students.
“No body dared to act against the illegal encroachment of the school playground, but someone has to bell the cat and hence, I decided to take up the issue and lead it to its conclusion”, he said.
The advocate then approached the principal of the school to know details about the encroachment and encroachers and then issued a notice to the Vidisha district collector, who is the president of the managing committee of the school, seeking to evict the encroachers from the playground.
He gathered details regarding the illegal commercial activities being done by the encroachers by establishing Canara Cricket Club and organizing local cricket matches and then moved the high court seeking clearance of the encroachment.
Following this, the high court sought a status report from the state government on the matter.
Later, the playground was cleared of encroachment by the authorities concerned and handed over to the school principal.
“The students erupted in joy when they gathered at the school playground after 15 years”, the school staff said.
The high court has also issued a direction to ensure that all the school playgrounds in Vidisha district are free of encroachment.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
