School space major casualty of ill-planned development drive of AMC , overhead water tank to come up within Bani Vidyapith Girls HS school

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, December 17, 2025

Governmental apathy and ill-planned development drive of the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) continue to take heavy toll on the open space and essential playing arena of schools at Agartala. Many guardians and concerned citizens have expressed grave concern over the shrinking space for school students during working hours but, undeterred by public criticism and a serious problem for the student community, the state government remains apathetic and the AMC is proceeding to occupy more and more space of schools.

The AMC Mayor Dipak Majumder today visited a site within the Bani Vidyapith Girls HS school for setting up an overhead water tank with a capacity for storage of 5.5 million litres of water . The proposed water treatment plant and water tank will be built at a cost of Rs 22 crores and , once it is completed, the water stored in it will cater to the needs of 2700 households in ward nos 20 and 32 spread over Ram Nagar road nos 5,6,7,8,9 and 10. While visiting the work site within Bani Vidyapith HS school the Mayor drew smug satisfaction that the overhead tank to be built within the school will substantially resolve the water crisis in AMC wards of Ram Nagar, sparing no thought for the girl students of the school.

The most bizarre thing is that the massive water treatment plant will be set up in the premises of Netaji Adarsha Vidya Mandir, another school, in Master Para area of the town over 16 ‘Gandas’ of land . The treated water of the plant as well as that of Rampur plant north of Ram Nagar will be stored in the overhead tank being set up in the Bani Vidyapith HS school for distribution. Interestingly, neither the AMC Mayor nor the officials of AMC and water resource department accompanying him seemed concerned over the inconvenience that the overhead tank will cause to the students of Bani Vidyapith HS school in the form of shrunken space during school hour. Many guardains said that the overhead tank could be built in any other plot of ‘Khas’ or government land.

Apart from this, two other prominent schools of the town, the Netaji Subhas Vidyaniketan and Bardowali HS school have also been suffering from virtual loss or shrunken space from encroachment . The land in front of the Bardowali school lying vacant for so many years has been occupied for car parking, an evening market and for holding mega ‘Pujas’ and festivities by elements owing allegiance to the ruling party. The school management committee members do not dare to protest and reclaim the land through construction of a boundary wall for fear of antagonising the ruling party and losing positions. This has left the student without any playground or space for informal games and sports. Worse is the condition of Netaji Subhas Vidyaniketan whose playground in front of the school has been near totally encroached by illegal car parkers and businessmen for keeping their goods . A local club has also got away with illegal occupation of a part of the school’s playground . As a result the once-celebrated school is now without any open space or playground but there is no one to protest and press for redressal.

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