The future of more than 350 poor tribal girl students of Jaunsar area of Dehradun is at stake due to the closure decision taken by the management of ‘ Balika Ashram Vidhyalaya’ of Chillon and Kalsi.
The management of these schools has issued notices to the parents of these girl students and teachers that the schools would get closed on March 31 this year.
The State Secretary of the Navkranti Swaraj Morcha (NSM), Gambir Singh Chauhan told newsmen here on Thursday that the management committee of these schools and governments both union and state are responsible for the closure of these residential schools for tribal girls. He said that the Balika Ashram Vidhyalaya, Chillion is serving the tribal area since 1942 and the local population is shocked at the decision to close the popular school. Chauhan said that the union government provides 90 percent of the budget for these schools and the management committee has to arrange for remaining 10 percent. He was of the view that if the management committee is not in a position to run the school then it should have invited a meeting and selected a new committee to manage the affair of the school. The spokesperson of the Morcha, Gajendra Joshi said that the union government has stopped aid to the schools due to mismanagement and lack of audit of accounts. He claimed that management committee is planning to sell the land of these old schools. Joshi suggested that either the state or union government should take up the task of managing these schools. He said that there are some orphan girls in these schools who would be worst affected by the decision of closure.
The Hamara Uttarakhand Manch (HUM) leader, Anoop Nautiyal said that the all social organizations should come forward to save these old schools where tribal girls are studying.
The leaders of the Morcha said that they have requested the district magistrate of Dehradun to look into the matter and prevent closure of these schools.
One of a staff member of the Balika Ashram Vidhyalaya, Chillion said that management had conveyed their decision to close the school on March 01. She said that the school is affiliated to Uttarakhand Board and the tribal girls perform exceptionally well in the examination.