Mafia after school plot

Business tycoon had set up the education facility on Dalmia Cement Factory in 1933

KARACHI:

The builder mafia is out grab the land of school serving the community since 1933.

Established by Ram Krishan Dalmia on the premises of the Dalmia Cement Factory, the school continues to serve the local community, though the cement factory ceased to exist decades ago.

Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, Wednesday, said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf will resist an attempt for grabbing valuable land of a pre-partition school in Dalmia area of Karachi by land mafia in connivance with relevant departments of Sindh government.

The Manik Government Boys Secondary School Dalmia was established in 1933 by Ram Kirshan Dalmia and is providing educational facilities to residents of the areas from generation. In 1993 the land of closed cement factory was allotted to Kolachi Cooperatives Housing Society which reportedly sold the piece of land where school building is situated to a builder.

Haleem Adil Sheikh, after receiving complaints from area residents, visited the school along with PTI MPA Arslan Ghumman, Akber Morejo and others. He inspected different sections of the school building and met with teachers and students of the school and residents of area who told the opposition leader that they all were against proposed shifting of the school to new location.

Sheikh said that around 90 year old school was a historical asset and it could not be demolished, but Murad Ali Shah led Sindh government was attempting to raze a historical building. An under construction building on a residential plot of Kolachi Cooperative Society was named as Manic school while school administration was directed to vacate the existing school building, he said adding that earlier play ground of the school was handed over to builder mafia and now school itself was under threat.

PTI member Sindh Assembly Arslan Ghumman while speaking at the occasion said that Sindh Education Minister Sardar Shah had recently closed 11,000 schools across Sindh and now they wanted to close down this historical school as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2022.