Tribal students sent home as school runs out of foodgrain-

Updated on: Friday, December 23, 2011

Tribal children studying in an Ashram School at Mokhada near here were sent back home by the school authorities as they did not have sufficient food-grain to feed them, it was revealed.

A spokesman for Shramajivi Sanghatana founded by Vasai MLA and activist Vivek Pandit said that in the Chas Tribal Residential School of Mokhada block, the school authorities had sent 163 tribal children back home due to lack of food grain stock in the school.

The authorities forced the students to write fake applications to make it appear that the students left on their own. They made students write applications stating they wanted to leave for reasons like they wanted to go for festivals, or they themselves or their family members were sick, the spokesman said.

The sanghatana activists met the Jawhar Tribal Project officer Namdev Patil and demanded an immediate probe in the matter. Patil who visited the Ashram school ordered that all the students sent back home be recalled again and also asked the concerned department to initiate action against the school authorities. The enquiry will find out what led to shortage of food supplied to the school and whether any irregularities had taken place.

The funding for the ashram schools in the state is done by the state government and they are run by NGOs or organisations working in social sector. Many ashram schools are residential.

Secretary of the Shramajivi Sanghatana Vijay Jadhav said that they would now undertake audit of other ashram schools in the region.

Tribal students sent home as school runs out of foodgrain-

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