The Government City Model Primary School at Chaderghat is a noisy racket during lunch break. The corridor, the classrooms, the small porch and the front of the school is filled with noisy children playing various games.
This was not always the case, as the school had a large open space in the middle where children could burn their energy. Things changed when the Hyderabad Metro chose the plot of land for raising pillars for its Red Line connecting LB Nagar to Miyapur in 2013.
The students were shifted to a nearby building while HMRL constructed the pillars and as per the agreement, rebuilt the school building, albeit in a different shape. The school, previously in a 75 by 45 metre plot of land, shrunk to a scalene triangle of 54 by 27 metres in the form of a four-storeyed building.
On Wednesday, when Metro officials went to the area to do markings for a proposed parking lot, parents and students held a protest. “We were promised that the land in front of the school building will be given back to us for use as a playground. But now they are planning to do something else,” said the headmaster of one of the schools.
Four schools with a strength of 1,400 children operate out of the premises. “We don’t have the space necessary for the morning assembly or serve mid-day meals. When one section of children have recess, other classes in the school cannot function due to the noise,” informed the headmaster of the primary section.
The school officials showed a representation sent by the district officials to HMRL for returning the land to turn it into a playground in 2019.
“We planned to construct a parking lot. But after yesterday’s protest, we have decided to keep the proposal on hold. There will be no development till an amicable solution is found,” said the spokesperson of HMRL.
