Land grabbing: Encroachers make things difficult for students

Occupants create security risk, roam around in undergarments during school hours

RAWALPINDI: Government schools in Rawalpindi are at war with land grabbers who have encroached upon much of their land.

Government Mission Higher Secondary School is one of at least 37 schools losing this war.

The school, established on 40 kanals in 1856, was nationalised in 1972 and later handed over to the Punjab government.

According to the teaching staff and revenue department maps available with the school administration, of the 40 kanals granted to the school, it now controls only 20. “Land grabbers have encroached around 20 kanals,” school principal Dr Muzaffar Khan told The Express Tribune.

The encroachers have now expanded their hold to the extent that they have even grabbed classrooms inside the new building and constructed houses on around five kanals of land in the centre of primary section.

“Over the summer, members of the squatter families put charpoys outside the classrooms during school timings,” complained one of the teachers while requesting not to be named.

He said that at times, male members even come out wearing undergarments and would sit under the trees near where the female teachers conduct their classes.

“The family takes over the premises after school hours and uses it to dry clothes and even hold weddings,” commented the teacher.

Connivance of Land Revenue Department

One of the families grabbed classrooms in the new building in the same year it was built --- 1991. The staff stated that the family even claims to have ownership documents to prove their case.

Two other rooms are occupied by owner of a plaza, who has placed a generator on its roofs and is claiming ownership.

Earlier, when the teaching staff cut off the power supply, the owner registered an FIR and moved the courts against the school administration.

There are around 40 shops up on rent in the building. “There are classrooms above the shops. If the building belonged to them, how did the department build classrooms on top?” Dr Khan asked. Interestingly, the shopkeepers also have documents to prove ownership.

Vulnerability

By 1985, seven of the school’s eight gates were occupied by land grabbers.

Dr Khan revealed that the watchman cannot close the main gate even after school hours because encroachers threaten him over barring their guests from entering, he said. “The watchman has been manhandled several times,” Dr Khan said, adding that the situation presented a security risk for the students.

“Recently, Punjab University, Allama Iqbal Open University, Sargodha University and the Rawalpindi board decided to hold their annual examination at the school. In the current situation, if an untoward incident happens, who will be held responsible?” he asked.

Shelter for vendors and late night parties

The Express Tribune witnessed an interesting scene during while taking pictures of the school. Vendors lined up on a footpath outside the school started rushing inside along with their wares. It was later revealed that the vendors were told to do this whenever TMA officials raided the school to avoid confiscation of their wares.

Meanwhile, the school is also a venue for late night parties. “People from well-off families arrange late night parties at the school,” claimed another teacher.

He said the education department was aware of the ground realities but had willingly turned a blind eye to the scenario and were making the principal a scapegoat.

Dumping ground

If things weren’t enough already, shopkeepers in nearby buildings dispose off their waste in the school. “We have recently removed around 50 tons of waste from the ground,” the principal said.

“We had to demolish 10 toilets which were used by the families and shopkeepers. They had choked and the sewage had started overflowing,” Dr Khan said and later added that the school now had no toilets for the 800 students who study at the school.

Besides, there is no arrangement for provision of clean drinking water.

Sewerage water from the houses directly flow and accumulates in the school ground. Children of the occupiers’ families freely roam around the premises and at times even enter the classes during class hours and even defecate there.

Executive District Officer (education) Qazi Zahoorul Haq could not be reached despite repeated calls on his phone.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2014.