J.M. Ranina School, in Parsi Colony, Dadar which has more than 100 students received a show cause notice from the local civic authorities on April 11, for not getting the school approved by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
By Pallavi Smart | Afternoon DC
The unrecognised primary school has been running for four years in Parsi Colony, Dadar; and the BMC’s education department only took notice, after a students’ union protested against them.
In the notice to the school management, the BMC states: “You applied for approval in the year 2007. However, after scrutinising the approval application from you, we discovered several drawbacks, and the approval was denied. The office wrote to you immediately to improve on said drawbacks. However, there has been no communication from you since then. Hence, we assume that you are not interested in taking the approval from us to run the school. So you summarily demanded to write an explanation for it or else requisite actions will be taken.”
According to senior official from the F/North ward under whose jurisdiction the school is covered, if the school cannot provide a justification, it may be closed down. The official on condition of anonymity told this newspaper, “The school has been served a show cause notice and has been asked to reply within 10 days. Action will be taken either if the school fails to respond to the given notice or if it fails to provide convincing explanation
for it.”
Another official from the department who wished to remain anonymous said, “Under such circumstances, after submitting the the notice, the explanation is accepted and time is given for compliance, after which an enquiry is conducted to scrutinise the improvement. There can also be total de-recognition notice by the civic authorities. However, in the case of de-recognition, care is taken to ensure that the students do not suffer. They are given provisional admission to other schools to be regularised later.”
Several attempts to contact school authorities for their comment over the issue were futile.
Meanwhile, Nilesh Bhosale, Central Office Chief, Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS) the students’ union which brought out the case said, “Following our complaints, the BMC authorities have looked into the matter. We are expecting appropriate action soon. However, if the BMC fails to do so,we will have to continue with our agitation.”
