A day after little Seerat Naaz’s video surfaced on the internet complaining about the condition of the government high school in Lohai-Malhar, Jammu and Kashmir Principal Secretary Alok Kumar verified her claims saying the condition of the school, as narrated in the video is “not far from the truth”.
“The contents of the video have been verified and found to be genuine. The condition of the school, as narrated in the video is not far from the truth and in fact, approximates the actual and real condition of the school. GHS, Lohai-Malhar has at present an enrolment of 284 students and 12 teaching faculty as against the sanctioned strength of 18,” read the official response from Alok Kumar. Earlier on Friday, in a video now viral on Facebook, the little girl from Lohai-Malhar village in Kathua district of Jammu, voices an adorable wish to Prime Minister Narendra Modi — ” Please Modi-ji, ek achhi si school banwa do na (Please Modi-ji, build a nice school for us)”.
Jammu and Kashmir principal secretary said that as seen in the video, there is an old building block of 3 rooms, adjacent to which, there is a double storey 10 room incomplete building which houses classrooms from class 1 to 10th, having facilities of ICT Lab and solar panels as well.
“The construction work of the said incomplete building was taken up for execution in the year 2013-14, pursuant to the directions passed by the then Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, during his tour to Lohai Malhar, Kathua,” it read.
“Funds to the tune of Rs 52.00 Lakhs (22.00 Lakhs by Planning & Development Department under RMSA and 30.00 Lakhs under State Sector) were released in 2014 & 2017 respectively, for the project. The structure of the building has been completed except finishing, flooring and electrification as per the letter of Executive Engineer, PWD, Basohli and there is a work done liability of 52.62 Lakhs. The work has stopped since 2017,” Kumar stated further.
He said the proposed Detailed Project Report (DPR) of Rs.166.29 lakhs need to be discarded and a revised DPR of the work done liability of Rs.52.62 lakhs and balance works in the building are required to be prepared.
“It is proposed that the DPR of Rs.166.29 Lakhs need to be discarded and a revised DPR of the work done liability of Rs.52.62 Lakhs and balance works in the building are required to be prepared with the arrangement of funding, aggregating to Rs.80.00 Lakhs approximately, so that remaining balance work is taken up on priority expeditiously and completed in next three months for the use of the students. The funding can be either met from the state sector plan or the savings of works under Samagra Shiksha,” it read.
Earlier the girl opens the clip, which has a runtime of fewer than 5 minutes, by introducing herself as a student of the local government high school.
She then cuts herself out of the frame and takes a walk down her school compound, giving ‘Modi-ji’ a sense of all that it lacks and what she thinks the authorities could do to make it better.
Looking into the lens, she says in a complaining tone, “Modi-ji, mujhe na aap se ek baat kehni hain (Modi-ji, there is something I need to tell you.)”
Little Seerat then pans the phone camera towards an uncovered concrete surface, right in front of two closed doors which she identifies as the “principal’s office and the staff room”.
“Dekho humara farsh kitna ganda ho chuka hain. Humein yahan niche bithate hain (Look how dirty the floor is. They make us sit here).”
The chubby-cheeked girl then takes PM, Modi, on a virtual tour of the school building, saying, “Chalo mein aap ko bari si building dikhati hoon aapne school ki (let me show you the big building where our school is)”.
As she walks a further few steps and bends the lens to the right, an unfinished building comes into view.
” Yeh dekho, pichle 5 saalon se, dekho kitni gandi building hain yahan pe. Chalo mein aap ko andar se dikhati hoon (Look how unclean the building has been for the last 5 years. Let me take you on a tour of the inside of the building)”.
After directing the lens to where the students sit for their classes, she once again points to the floor and the visible layer of dirt on it.
“Please, aap se na request karti hoon, aap na achha sa school bana do. Humein niche baithna parta hain aur hamari uniform gandi ho jati hain aur phir humein Mamma marti hain. Humare pas bench bhi nahin hain (I request you to build us a nice school. We have to sit on the floor because of which our uniforms get dirty. My mother often scolds me for this. We don’t even have benches to sit on).”
She then takes an unplastered flight of stairs to the first floor and pans her lens towards the corridor, which has a similar unclean appearance as the ground floor.
” Please Modi-ji, mein aap se request karti hoon ki achha sa bana de yeh school. Meri bhi baat sun lo (Please Modi-ji, I am requesting you to make my school better. Please grant my wish)”.
She then skips down the stairs and proceeds to the outer compound with her lens firmly directed towards the unclean surface.
The little one pans her lens out towards the “toilet”, which barely has the appearance of one.
“Dekho, humara kitna ganda toilet aur tut gaya hain (Look how filthy and broken our toilet is).”
She then points to an open area where she says a new school building is coming up.
Giving a further first-hand view of the glaring lack of amenities at the school, she shows how the students don’t even have functional toilets and have to relieve themselves in the open.
She then directs her lens towards a pit where the students go to relieve themselves.
” Humein iss naali mein jana parta hain (We need to head to this pit to relieve ourselves.)”
The munchkin closes her video with a fervent appeal to PM Modi. “Modi-ji, aap poore desh ki sunte ho. Meri bhi sun lo aur achha sa humara yeh school banwa do. Bilkul sundar sa school bana do taaki humein niche na baithna padhe. Taaki Mamma na mare. Taaki achhe se padhai karein. Humara school please achhe se banwa do (Modi-ji, you listen to all the countrymen. Please listen to me too and build us a good school. The school should be such that we don’t have to sit on the floor. So that my mother doesn’t scold or cane me. So that we could all study well. Please have a nice school constructed for us),” she signs off saying. (ANI)
