Catholics protest 'slum' tag for two city schools

Hundreds of Catholics came together on Saturday morning to protest against two city schools which were recently declared as slum structures by the civic body. The protest was held outside the Infant Jesus Church and the Koliwada Municipal School in Jogeshwari, close to the Western Express Highway.

The protesters demanded to remove the names of the two schools from the proposed SRA scheme list. "The authorities while issuing the Letter of Intent declared the schools as slums. Can schools that are made of RCC structures be called as slums?" said Godfrey Pimenta who organised the protest.

He added, "Under no stretch of imagination can they be called as slum because as per their own definition, a slum is a structure that requires improvement and lacks basic civic amenities. The two schools have several children studying in them. The BMC officer has in fact even suggested that the schools be relocated."