‘Does teaching take place in civic schools?’

New Delhi: The Delhi high court took the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and East Delhi Municipal Corporation to task after seeing some pictures of municipal schools within their jurisdiction in which children were seen sweeping the floors and the campus, filled with garbage.

“Is there any teaching taking place in these schools? Shall we call the students here? You teach them like this? Children are carrying brooms in their hands instead of pens?” a bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice C. Hari Shankar said.

“How come the premises are so dirty…what about the toilets?” the bench asked some officials and an MCD school principal, present in the court.

Terming the condition of the schools as “deplorable”, the bench asked the principals, “Don’t you conduct inspection of the schools?” The court also stated that the schools’ principals and invigilators were doing their work properly.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by NGO Justice for All through their counsel Khagesh Jha. The plea said the schools stink because the garbage were not cleaned regularly.

Observing “the report includes photos of municipal schools, manifesting deplorable conditions in schools,” the bench asked the petitioner to furnish a list of people, who could conduct random inspections of the schools and listed the matter for September 19.

However, the counsel for a civic body said the residents of neighbouring colonies threw the garbage in the school, which has filed a complaint with the police. He also maintained the trash was being lifted from the premises on a daily basis.

The high court had earlier asked the corporations’ officials to fall in line and chided them saying “is this how you treat your children?”

“Quit your jobs and sit at home,” it told the officials of the Delhi government and the municipal corporations for their failure to implement daily garbage collection from city schools.

The bench had directed the three MCDs, the New Delhi Municipal Council and Delhi Cantonment Board on May 17 to ensure that garbage was collected from all schools under their jurisdiction and disposed of.