Mangaluru, Dec 13: The foundation stone laying ceremony for the proposed Maulana Azad Bhavan in the city on Saturday was marred by the protest staged by the Sangh Parivar activists along with the students of a private English Media School, run by Kerala Samajam, which had planned to take over a government land.
It is learnt that the school management had asked the students to stage protest and not allow the elected representatives and officials to lay foundation stone for the proposed building.
The government had earlier this year decided to build Maulana Azad Bhavan in all district head quarters including Mangaluru and released Rs 1 crore each. The Bhavan is expected to house the offices of the Minorities Welfare Department, Karnataka State Minorities Commission, Wakf office and district information centre to provide information on all the programmes meant for the welfare of the minorities.
The district administration had formally handed over a 16 cents land at Pandeshwar to Wakf Board for the construction of the proposed Bhavan.
Around 9 a.m. on Saturday District In-charge Minister B Ramanath Rai, Mangaluru South MLA J R Lobo, MLC Ivan D'Souza, Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim and others reached the spot for the scheduled event.
Meanwhile, a group of Sangh Parivar activists and students of private school began to raise slogans against the elected representatives and Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim. The uniform-clad students occupied the ground and began to play.
Police rushed to the spot to prevent any untoward incidents. City Police Commissioner R Hithendra requested the school management not to misguide the students and send them to classrooms, but in vain.
Local corporator Diwakar also extended support to the agitators saying that the vacant land should be converted into a full-fledged play ground for school children and local youth instead of constructing Maulana Azad Bhavan on it.
He also criticized Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim for giving green signal to build Bhavan on the land which was being used as playground. œThe district administration should immediately withdraw the land handed over to Wakf Board and make it a full-fledged playground for the school children and local youth, who do not have any other suitable place to play in the locality, he said.
One of the teachers of the Kerala Samajam English Medium School said that if the Bhavan was built the students will lose their only playground.
œOur students have been playing in this ground for nearly three decades. However district administration has now cheated the children by handing over the land to Wakf Board, she said adding that the school management had also submitted a memorandum to deputy commissioner urging him to handover the land to the Kerala Samajam.
Sources from DC office said that the land belonged to the revenue department and was reserved to build its staff quarters. However, the land had officially been handed over to the Wakf Board to build Azad Bhavan in October this year.
Kerala Samajam, Mangaluru, is an organization of Keralites living in Mangaluru. It is running an English medium School starts from LKG to PUC and a commercial building city with a conference hall in the city.
Comments
Add new comment