[ 8 Sep, 2006 0309hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
NEW DELHI: With godowns, a screening press and 100-odd shops dealing in junk, timber and building material circling its boundary wall, it was hard to spot the government-aided senior secondary school at Old Double Storey area in Lajpat Nagar IV.
When MCD sealed eight shops here on Thursday, the authorities at Shradharam Sanatan Dharam Senior Secondary School said this has come as a major relief to students.
"These shops have all along been a cause of pollution and distraction to students," said Ramesh Sharma, the manager of the school. He added that all these shops had been running illegally on school land for years now.
From the outside, it seems that the shops are located outside the school boundary. But once you enter the premises, it becomes clear that the shops have eaten into the playground.
At one place, the iron grill has brokwn down, owing to the junk pressing against the wall. Sitting inside the classroom, you can only see rows of tin roofs strewn with junk.
Protesting against the sealing drive, the shopkeepers claimed that they have been paying rent to the Shradharam Trust. They even produced legal documents to show that they were tenants, which however read that, "lesee will not carry out any business which will create nuisance and pollution in the area."
When contacted, the Pandit Shradharam Trust Committee labelled all these shops as unauthorised and pointed out that they were occupying the school land.
Three acres of land had been allotted to the trust to run a school in 1953.
"But the previous manager of the committee in connivance with some others had allowed these shops to come up between 1995 and 2002.
He was arrested in 2002 in connection with a case of misappropriation of funds and a fake degree racket. The case is still on. The school land was allotted by Land and Development Office (L&DO) to the Trust.
But despite complaints from the new trust committee, the authorities are yet to rid the land of encroachments," one of the trust members told Times City.
The trust and residents of the area have complained about these shops to the MCD and L&DO.
"Responding to numerous complaints, L&DO carried out a survey here a few months back, and assured school authorities that it would initiate demolition action to bring respite to people. But nothing has happened so far," said a trust member.
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