PIL takes exception to closure of municipal schools

Mumbai: A PIl filed in the Bombay High Court has taken exception to closure of around hundred municipal schools in the city, on the ground that it affects children from the lower strata of the society.

All these schools are vernacular medium, including Marathi, Urdu, Kannad, Gujarati, Telgu and Tamil.

In particular, petitioner Khairnnisa Mohamed Sultan has sought restarting of Khandia Street Municipal Urdu School which was closed in 1990 after the trust which owned the building sold it to one Afia Builders.

The school was shifted to Kamathipura, the area known for flesh-trade, and many parents chose not to send their children to the new school, petitioner contended.

Petitioner's lawyer A N Mulla said he was relying on media reports which have said some hundred schools were closed by MCGM in recent years because of dropping number of students.

In reply, Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai's lawyer Preeti Purandare said though some schools have been closed, children studying there were shifted elsewhere.

She also assured the court that MCGM will reconsider the issue.

The division bench headed by Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar has given the corporation two weeks to file detailed reply.