Kochi, July 31 The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the Alappuzha District Collector and other senior officials from other departments to take immediate action to resolve the issue of waterlogging in SNDP Higher Secondary School in Kuttanad.
The order came from the division bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji when they were considering a suo motu PIL initiated after receipt of a letter from the teachers and students of the school regarding flooding and interruption of classes.
The area comes under the local cooperative group (Samithi), which does collective farming.
The court then considered the submission made on Thursday that the Kuttanad area is below sea level, and this is something that happens occasionally and not frequently. The bench orally remarked, “Something has to be done. This cannot be taken as a fact of life,” observed the court.
The court then posted the case for August 11, when a fresh action taken report will be submitted by all the concerned parties.
On July 24, based on the letter, the same Division bench passed an interim order directing the District Collector to call a joint meeting of the officers concerned.
“The District Collector will call for a joint meeting of the officers concerned from the Education Department, Agriculture Department, representative of the school, to ascertain the factual position and issue necessary directions as the District Collector deems fit and warranted to remedy the situation pointed out by the students,” it said in the order and posted the case for July 31, when an action taken report was to be submitted.
“Ask the Collector to look into and find out if there are other schools also in the area having a similar problem. Thereafter, the court may consider taking up the larger issue regarding other schools in the area, if any and for long-term solutions,” the court orally observed.
It then decided to appoint an amicus curiae to assist it in the matter and directed that KeLSA (Kerala State Legal Services Authority) be included as a respondent and the District Legal Services Authority to carry out a factual enquiry and apprise the amicus, and then file the proper format petition with necessary prayers.
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