Railway Men’s School to be shifted to 2 quarters!

 

 

 

 

The Railway Men’s High School of Ajni which imparts education to many underprivileged students of the society is going to be relocated at a space which is currently accommodating two residential quarters. This 87-year-old school is situated at approximately 2 acres land which has assembly area, office, classrooms, play ground, library, science lab, computer lab and staff quarters. However, the new space will hardly accommodate the school building. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is going to construct a new school premise near the Central Railway stadium in Ajni Railway Colony. The authority has already decided the spot for relocation, while the school administration raised objection about the new place.

 

“We cannot oppose the project of administration. But it is necessary that the land they allotted us must be big enough to accommodate our students and the facilities that we have in our current school,” Padmakar Telang, Principal of the school told ‘The Hitavada’. The uncertainty about school should be cleared as we have not yet received any information about felling of trees in the premises and shifting of the school at other place, said Telang. “Total 300 students are studying in the school from different strata of the society and the new space will hardly accommodate them all with facilities,” said the principal. This British-era school got recognition for education upto Standard X in 1952. The students of this school have excelled in medical, engineering, management, politics to movies and proved their mettle in overseas also.

 

Along with children of railway employees, children of rickshaw drivers, private and Government employees in Jattarodi, Indira Nagar, Rambagh, Medical, Chhoti Dhantoli, Parvati Nagar, Ramai Nagar, Vishwakarma Nagar and other areas are studying in this school. The school management and students also joined hands with citizens and environmental activists to save trees in their school premises and also their school building. NHAI is going to demolish the school as well as other old infrastructures of Ajni Railway Colony for construction of Inter-Modal Station (IMS) in Ajni. NHAI and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) have begun the tree counting process and the trees inside the school premises were also counted for chopping. The authority is going to fell 1940 trees in the colony, while activists are accusing that there are 7,000 big and small trees that will be chopped for the project. 

 

 Alumni of Railway Men’s High School writing postcard to Prime Minister of India and Nitin Gadkari. (Pics by Satish Raut)

 

 

Railway Men’s School alumni write postcard to PMO The ‘Ajni Vann’ campaign on Sunday supported by large number of alumni of Railway Men’s High School. Former students came to their school and wrote postcards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari to save the trees in the vicinity and also save the age-old school premises. More than 300 post cards were sent to PMO and Gadkari’s office in support of ‘Ajni Vann’. “We are not against the development of the project but we want to save our school premises and the trees in the locality,” said Mohan Babrekar, a former student of the school to ‘The Hitavada’. The event became a type of re-union as many former students visited school on Sunday and met their teachers and staff members and wrote the postcard.

 

 

Youths participate in ‘Chipko Movement’ to save Ajni Vann For conservation of nature and save the trees of Ajni Railway Colony, a good number of youth from the city came forward and participated in the ‘Chipko Movement’ that was conducted at Ajni Railway Colony on Sunday morning. The organising team led the participants to a walk on narrow lanes of the colony showing the age old trees. The participants also experienced bird watching during the event on Sunday. Environmental activists, residents and citizens are protesting the felling of trees in the colony for IMS project. The protest is receiving good response from citizens. However, the authorities are also trying to maintain transparency in their working process. Following the same, NHAI and NMC initiated tree counting process before chopping them.