School demolition to be looked after: Gujarat Education minister

The Gujarat Assembly has been promised by the Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama today, of his department building a new school in place of the one which was ruined in Botad town of Saurashtra region on March 9, 2015. Congress MLA Amreli Paresh Dhanani, during the assembly session, addressed the issue of the government primary school a "matter of urgent public importance" and had a word with the education minister about changes required to ensure that education, as a whole, is not affected.

"Though the matter is sub-judice till today, we learnt that the owner sold the property to some other person, who had razed the structure using a JCB machine on March 9. They demolished four out of five rooms of this school, leaving it unusable", Chudasama said. Later, he assured that an alternative facility would be created for students within 24 hours. 244 students of standard one to standard eight study here in two shifts, Chudasama said. In 2008, the building's owner filed a civil suit in court to take back its possession, according to the minister.

In his statement, Chudasama mentioned that the school building, containing the four classrooms and one office, which is owned by Hargovindbhai Sheth, was given away to the Gujarat state government. Since 1967, the building has been in possession of the Botad Municipality and a primary school has been functioning there since then. "Based on our complaint filed with the local police, the key accused have been arrested and police is now searching for others. I want to assure the House that we will take directions from the court and build a new school in the same place to discourage the land mafia from trying to capture this land", said Chudasama.