Railway authorities, villagers in a tussle over school land in Nelamangala

BENGALURU: Villagers of Basavanahalli in Nelamangala taluk and the Railway authorities are engaged in a fight over land belonging to a government school where a railway line passes nearby.

Villagers opposed the visit of Railway authorities along with armed forces to the Basavanahalli Government Primary School to survey the land.

The railway track passes near the Basavanahalli Government Primary School and trains from Bengaluru to Hassan traverse the route. Many years ago, the owner of the land gave it as a donation to the school, but now the Railway officials, without any prior notice, came along with armed railway policemen on Friday for inspection which was met with severe opposition by the villagers.

Narasimhamurthy, former Basavanahalli Gramapanchayath Vice  President.

“In the year 1968, a landlord donated one acre of land to the Basavanahalli Government Primary School. We have documents to prove that the land belongs to the school. The Railways built a road and started using it. The road is very dusty and affects schoolchildren. We stopped using the road because it disturbs the schoolchildren. The armed force came to scare us, but we will not leave an inch of land to the Railways”, said Narasimhamurthy, former Basavanahalli Gram Panchayat vice-president.