Date:19/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/19/stories/2007071959810400.htm

Tamil Nadu

Municipal schools lack basic amenities

M. Gunasekaran

Contractors turn down tenders; works yet to take off

— Photo: M. Balaji

Students attending class under the shade of trees at Chandrakavi Municipal Middle School in Tirupur.

TIRUPUR: For Manimegalai, eighth standard student of Municipal Middle School at Chandrakavi, sitting on a concrete floor at the school is a privilege. For she gets that chance in alternate weeks.

Every other week she, along with her classmates, has to sit on the open ground under the shades of trees. With the influx of a migrant population to the knitwear town, the strength of students in the school has risen to 1,000 but the school has just 13 classrooms.

“We need another eight classrooms to accommodate all students. It is very difficult to conduct classes during rains,” complains a teacher. The tale of Chandrakavi Middle School is not an isolated case, but a disturbing reality in many municipal schools.

More than Rs. 4 crore allotted by the Municipality to construct classrooms, toilets and repair school buildings at various places in the town remained unspent for over two years. But it managed to construct storm water drains and lay roads at over Rs. 45 crore last year.

Municipal Chairman K. Selvaraj said no contractor was willing to take up the job in the schools. “The contractors complain that our schedule of rates, fixed by the Public Works Department for the entire State, is very low compared to the prevailing market rates,” he told The Hindu.

An official recalled the local body’s effort in calling tenders for five to six times to construct classrooms. “The contractors are not even ready to do the repair works,” an engineer said.

The contractors said the wages for a mason here was Rs. 240 a day but the Government fixed it at Rs. 120 a day. A woman helper gets a daily wage of Rs. 120 here but the Government rate is only Rs.60. Sand and blue metal prices are very high here.

Owing to the dearth of labourers, private building owners pay more wages to workers besides other sops, including reimbursement of bus fare.

Conceding that the young children were suffering a lot, Mr. Selvaraj said the Municipal Council would pass a resolution urging the Government to give a special schedule of rates to Tirupur considering the high cost of living here.