COIMBATORE: In an embarrassing gaffe, DRDA officials demolished a school building that was in good shape instead of razing a 42-year-old building. Residents of Kurukkiliyampalayam in Ottarpalayam panchayat are upset that the children now have to sit cramped in whatever space that is available.
Loganayagi Sivakumar, the ward 6 union councillor from Annur, said: “The old school building is situated 500 metres from the present Panchayat elementary school. As the building was constructed in 1981 and had not been in use for more than two decades, we passed a resolution to demolish the building during the union council meet and subsequently it was approved. But, the old building was not demolished, instead, a building in use was demolished owing to a mistake by officials.”
KN Kaliyappan, a social activist in Kurukkiliyampalayam, said: “The building that was mistakenly demolished measured 1300 square feet. The school premises had two building structures before the demolition. Students studying in the school were provided with a noon meal at the building.
Meanwhile, a team of workers arrived at the school on October 24 and took out things from inside the building for arranging the demolition. Teachers in the school reminded them that the building was not fixed for demolition. Despite the reminder by teachers, however, the building was demolished at midnight on October 25.”
G Ashok Kumar, a resident of the village said: “To renovate the building, we had contributed Rs 50,000, along with the government fund of Rs 65,000, in 2010. The building was used for election polling in 2019 and vaccination purposes for Covid-19. The building looked as if it was constructed recently. It was purely because of officials’ ignorance that the new building was demolished.” A teacher from the school, who did not want to be named, said: “When they came to shift things from the building, we alerted them that the building was not meant for demolition. But, they did not listen to us.”
The villagers said they have decided to petition the collector during the grievance meeting coming Monday. A Palanisamy, Annur Union Chairman, said: “The villagers have made the complaint over it. I will inspect the site on Saturday.”
Latha, BDO of Annur, denied the charge by the villagers. “There was no mistake in the demolition of the building. As the concrete structure was in a bad condition, engineers visited the place and chose the building for demolition. There was no mistake.”