Around 350 students studying in the corporation-run higher secondary school at RS Puram are deprived of sports activities as the school ground has been taken over by the civic body.
Sources said the land would be used to build a hockey stadium and an office for the Coimbatore City Municipality Corporation.
Rajam (name changed), a teacher of the school, said, "The CCMC acquired the school playground to build a hockey stadium and birth/registration office. As a result, space for the students has been reduced. They are not able to compete in the district, state-level sports events as they cannot practice anywhere else."
P Sarvanan, an alumnus of the school, said, "The school has a compound and gate, but outsiders come into the campus at night to consume alcohol and leave the bottles in the school ground. There is no security guard in this school."
"On Friday, few miscreants have set fire to synthetic turf which was kept for the usage of the hockey stadium. The work is yet to be completed even though the civic body had acquired the ground in 2014-2015 and was allocated Rs 2 crore for the work. Due to inefficient officials, taxpayers' money is wasted," he added.
P Chandrasekar, an office-bearer of Palli Kalvi Paathukappu Iyakkam, told TNIE, "CCMC garbage trucks are parked on the campus. There is no safety for students as waste is piled up in the ground. Besides, anyone can enter the school campus as there is no security guard. The civic body should not have acquired school property for commercial use as it destroys ambience of the school."
Founder of Marumalarchi Makkal Iyakkam, V Eswaran accused CCMC of taking over school grounds for other purposes. "Apart from this school, the corporation has constructed a commercial complex in Tatabad school, Amma canteen in Masakalipalayam school, etc. Since the caters to underprivileged children, CCMC thinks no political party bother about such issues. The State government must take a policy decision not to use school land for any other purpose," he added.
CCMC commissioner Raja Gopal Sunakara could not be reached for comments.