BELAGAVI: Tension prevailed after members of the School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC) of a government Marathi school opposed SDMC members from a government Kannada school for performing bhoomi puja to construct new classrooms at Karadaga village in Belagavi on Wednesday.
Marathi school SDMC members said classrooms for Kannada school should not be constructed on the school premises. This angered Kannada school members, who pointed out that the government has already sanctioned grants for the construction.
The Education Department has allotted one acre (Survey No: 462) at the village in Nipani taluk for a combined Kannada, Urdu and Marathi school. Years ago, the Kannada school was shifted to the old government Marathi school building in Parang village as the number of Kannada schoolchildren was just just 16-18. But it has now increased to 280 and Kannada school SDMC members wanted to build extra classrooms in the land allotted on the premises of Marathi school.
The Education Department cleared a proposal on December 27, 2022 to demolish the 50-year-old Kannada schoolrooms and construct new ones within Marathi school building premises. The PWD also sanctioned Rs 11.98 lakh on November 16, 2022. Villagers, who had received an NOC from the Karadaga Gram Panchayat, had gone to perform bhoomi puja. When Kannada SDMC members, including president Jinappa Gawade, arrived at the venue, members of the Marathi school SDMC protested and argued.
Gawade said the government had allotted one-acre land for Kannada, Marathi and Urdu schools, and 13.3 guntas of land is still reserved for the Kannada school.
Mohan Hanchate, Deputy Director of Public Instructions, Chikodi Educational District, said, “We are taking members of both SDMCs and villagers into confidence. We will sort out the issue soon.”