Raw bricks in Chafewadi ashram school hostel, panel head questions work and Thane oversight

Construction of new buildings and a hostel at the government tribal ashram school in Chafewadi, in Karjat taluka of Raigad district, is under way. School management committee chairman Pradeep Gore has objected strongly to the work, alleging it is of poor quality. He says the mud bricks going into the hostel building are raw and break as soon as they are picked up.

The buildings are not being constructed by the Public Works Department of Raigad district. The work is the responsibility of the construction department of Thane district. This has raised the question of who actually controls the work.

Karjat is known as a tribal taluka. To take responsibility for the education of tribal children here, the government runs government ashram schools through the Tribal Development Department. The taluka has such schools at Chafewadi, Bhalivadi, Pingalas and Patharaj. Karjat MLA Mahendra Thorve had pursued the government to get the Chafewadi ashram school building and hostel sanctioned. Rs 6 crore was then sanctioned for a three-storey school building and Rs 8.25 crore for the hostel building.

Funds of about Rs 15 crore have been sanctioned for the two buildings. Contractors from Thane district are carrying out the work. Along with the contractors, supervision of the work has also been given to the construction department of Thane district. The question is how responsibility for the work at a government ashram school here passed to a Thane district department, when Karjat taluka has a sub-divisional office of the Public Works Department.

It is said that the poor-quality work is going on because the responsibility for the Karjat ashram school building in Raigad district was given to Thane district officials. Another question is how officials will come from Thane to Karjat. Officials do not come to the ashram school for inspections, and so the hostel and school building work is of poor quality. According to Gore, the bricks brought for construction there break when they fall from the hand.

Work is also under way on the porch of the hostel building. There is a deep pit there, and if a child fell into it in the dark of night, bones would not escape being broken. The question has therefore been raised about what kind of planning the Public Works Department officials who planned such work have done.

The children studying at the ashram school are tribal. Parents have asked what will happen if, after such poor-quality work, the building collapses later. It is being said that if the building collapses in future because of this poor work, the lives of children from the tribal community could be lost.

Gore said officials from Thane district inspect the construction of tribal ashram schools in Karjat taluka. He has urged that the local MLA pay immediate attention to stop such shoddy work.