Bantwal: Apathy of Mescom in Shifting Electricity Tower on School Campus Endangers Young Lives
 
News and Pics by Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network—Bantwal (RD/CN)
 
Bantwal, Feb 27: The scene at Kedila Gadiyara School located near Manila here is certainly a strange one.

Little children playing in the ‘Anganawadi’, students studying, the school kitchen where hot  mid-day meals are prepared……..and in the midst of all this is a high tension electric tower that is a danger to everyone.

The electric tower was erected on the campus of the government school by the Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (Mescom), putting the school children in grave danger each day.

The feeder lines connecting Netlamudnur main grid pass through the school which is a major cause of worry to the school administration, students, and the locals. The opposition from the school administration against erecting the electric tower was nullified by the orders of the deputy commissioner (DC).
 

This is a clear case of officers who have scant regard for government schools and students of those schools.  DC, revenue department, Mescom, and the education department overruled the opposition of the school development committee and teachers.
 
Just as it is the practice in every school to convene an assembly in the early morning in front of the flag post, here the students gather under high tension cables and in close proximity to the tower on the school premises! 
 
School development managing committee president Raghu Ajila and other committee members had protested the setting up of the electricity tower here by locking the school gate.  However, as they did not get sufficient support from the locals, the protest did not yield desired results. 

Mescom had agreed to relocate the Anganawadi during the hearing of petitions filed by the school development committee at the district magistrate’s court. The company had also felled two palm trees and 20 cashew trees and awarded a monetary compensation of Rs 25,424.
 
Mescom constructed a barrier wall of four feet height around the tower.  However, the assurances by Mescom to relocate the Anganawadi have not yet materialized. As the child welfare department also has not pursued the issue with Mescom, it will take years to actually relocate the Anganawadi. 
 
Mescom had erected the electric towers after undertaking a survey during the mid-term vacation, supported by the DC’s order.  State energy minister K S Eshwarappa inaugurated the Nettlamudnur main feeders that are linked to the electric towers at the school, on November 23 2008. Since then, the electricity flowing through these high tension cables has been endangering the lives of 35 little children at the nursery and 345 primary school students studying in Classes 1 to 8.
 
When this reporter went to click the pictures during the early morning assembly here, a teacher said in anguish and desperation, “Why take pictures, we are exhausted of all means of protest!”  
 
A solution needs to be found to this issue at the earliest—if the electricity towers cannot be shifted then maybe the school should be relocated.