Kerala Child Rights Panel Orders Encroachment Removal To Ensure Students’ School Access

Remove encroachment to ensure right of way for students: Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights

Complaints over access to school

The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has intervened after complaints about hurdles faced by schoolchildren using the Kuzhinjanvila-Thazhevila road in Karode grama panchayat.

The commission directed the secretary of Karode grama panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram district to evict encroachers from ‘puramboke’ land and ensure a right of way for children.

The complaint concerned a tiled roof building constructed after an encroachment on the puramboke land.

According to the complaint, the building was preventing students from walking safely to school and obstructing the smooth movement of school buses and other vehicles.

The commission directed the Karode village officer, the Karode grama panchayat secretary and the station house officer of Pozhiyoor police station to take action.

Action involving panchayat and police

The panchayat secretary may seek the assistance of the station house officer to evict the encroachers under the provisions of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act.

The direction places responsibility on the local panchayat authorities to address the encroachment while allowing them to seek police assistance for the eviction.

The commission also assigned an urgent task to the Kerala State Electricity Board executive engineer in Neyyattinkara.

The executive engineer was directed to shift an electricity post that was posing a hurdle to travel along the road.

The commission’s full Bench comprised F. Wilson, B. Mohankumar and K.K. Shaju.

It also directed the vicar of St. Mary’s MSC church to relocate a church pillar situated at the starting point of the road.

The petition was filed by A. Ajeesh, the Kuzhinjanvila ward member of Karode grama panchayat.

Source: The Hindu