The court directed the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar collector to allocate funds for operating the motorised boat for schoolchildren of Kale Wasti in Bhiw Dhanora, including the motorman’s salary, and ensure the service starts on Oct 26. As a result, children continued crossing the Jayakwadi backwaters on unsafe rafts during the monsoon.
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The Aurangabad bench of Bombay high court, making observations regarding the dangerous school commute of children from Kale Wasti, said the authorities merely provided a boat and a motorman, but failed to make provisions to run the service.
The PIL results from a TOI report published on Aug 27, 2023, which highlighted how children from Kale Wasti of Bhiw Dhanora village in Gangapur taluka were using makeshift thermocol rafts to cross the Jayakwadi dam backwaters to reach school. The HC took suo motu cognisance of the report on Aug 29, 2023, converted it into a PIL and appointed advocate Pushkar Shendurnikar as amicus curiae. On Sept 11, 2023, it directed the then district collector to arrange for a boat or motorboat with an attendant, life jackets and floaters to facilitate the children’s commute. The respondents had submitted that building a bridge would cost more than Rs 100 crore and pointed out that schools were available 7km to 11km away where the children could study.
As a result, the children were again forced to commute in dangerous conditions on a raft during the rainy season, the court noted, adding that the PIL was registered precisely for this reason.
A division bench of Justices Nitin Suryawanshi and Abasaheb Shinde, hearing a suo motu PIL, said it was “shocked” to note that the boat, provided by the disaster management department of the collectorate on the court’s directions, has not been operational for over one-and-a-half years as no provision was made for fuel and the motorman’s payment. HC, in its latest hearing, observed that the respondents appeared to have made only “a show” of providing the boat and the motorman, without making any provision for running it. “We are surprised to know that the respondents are suggesting that children should travel 11km to attend school, without there being any provision for commutation,” the division bench of the HC observed.
The village is divided by the backwaters, which enter the Shivna river, leaving residents dependent on a risky water crossing, particularly during the monsoon. The judges also took strong exception to the state’s reply affidavit. The high court further directed that the boat facility also be made available to villagers to commute to Bhiw Dhanora village throughout the day.