The Golden Palm Army School will come up on a sprawling campus near the Military Hospital in the Nandambakkam Defence Colony. It will have classes from I to X, and new ones will be added in the years to come.
“The school will be open to students from all backgrounds, and not just for children of army officers alone.
Special Correspondent
| It will be the last one to come up The last one in a metropolis |
CHENNAI: Chennai will soon have an Army school. It will be built at a cost of Rs. 6.3 crore, said Anup S. Jamwal, Adjutant General (AG), Army headquarters.
He was interacting with retired officers at the Area Officers Mess here on Friday.
This will be the last Army school to come up in a metropolis as it has been decided not to set up more schools in metro areas. The school will be located near the Military Hospital in Nandambakkam and the work is expected to begin next month. The school will have modern facilities and will have classes till Plus Two.
`Heart first approach'
Lt.Gen. Jamwal said that he had brought in the `heart first approach' while dealing with applications. "I tell officials and staff to look at an application as if the officer or the staff himself has written it," he said and added that all applicants had to be treated with dignity and respect.
He followed up with all levels of the hierarchy and also made "focussed and random calls" to sensitise all commanders to issues that affect soldiers and ex-servicemen.
Lt.Gen. Jamwal said that the Army was concerned about suicides by soldiers in combat areas and in low intensity conflict regions. The Army had adopted a psychological approach to these problems, he said.
The General, who commanded a Corps and raised another before taking over as AG, said that more ex-servicemen rallies would be held across the country and their problems addressed. The concept of veteran hostels had been widely welcomed and many former soldiers found them useful.
The AG said the Army aimed at consolidating 227 polyclinics set up across the country. The entire medical benefit scheme was being closely looked at to ensure that ex-servicemen derived the maximum benefit. Since medicine shortage was a serious issue in both polyclinics and military hospitals, a new plan was thought of. As per this plan, from the next month, medicines would be supplied by drug companies directly to the hospitals and polyclinics.
A school located in unfriendly environs
K. Manikandan
| Adi Dravidar school in Mount Battery needs to be relocated |
IN A CORNER: Parents of children studying in Government Adi Dravidar Welfare Primary School in Mount Battery, St. Thomas Mount, want the institution shifted.
TAMBARAM: The Government Adi Dravidar Welfare Primary School at Mount Battery, St. Thomas Mount, is located in a dead end, surrounded by Weapon Training Area of Officers Training Academy on the one side and thorny trees and snake pits on the other.
It is cut off from the neighbouring localities of Nandambakkam and St. Thomas Mount considering that roads leading to it are in bad condition . During class hours, reptiles crawl up to the classroom. And when rifle training for cadets is on at the OTA, the noise levels are quite a distraction for both the students and teachers.
Due to the location of the school, its scary environs and poor amenities, parents have urged the State government to take steps to shift it to an accessible place.
The school, started in 1937 in Mount Battery (called so because of its location for military operations during the British days) was to cater to the needs of poor families hailing from the rural pockets in Alandur, St. Thomas Mount, Nandambakkam and Manapakkam, recalled P. Parthasarathy, a former student.
School Education Department officials said there were more than 300 students once and the number had dwindled to 25. The school buildings were in a pathetic condition before they were renovated recently following complaints. However, the condition of the noon meal kitchen continues to be poor. Insects and worms make their way into the kitchen owing to the dense vegetation around the school.
Teachers said miscreants consumed alcohol, cooked food near the bushes during holidays and broke bottles inside classrooms. The students and staff were forced to clean the mess before the classes commenced.
Rajeswari Ravi, Nandambakkam Town Panchayat Councillor from Ward No.10, said that parents hesitated to send their children to the Mound Battery Primary School. If shifted to a prominent location, it would be of immense benefit to many backward areas, including Seven Wells Street, Mangaliamman Koil Street, Thulasingapuram, Magazine Road and other areas of St. Thomas Mount cantonment area and Nandambakkam.
A few cents of vacant Defence land could be spared for building the school, the residents said. Officials of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan said that funds were available for constructing new buildings, but the land had to be earmarked first. Officials at St. Thomas Mount cum Pallavaram Cantonment Board said that they had not received any presentation so far.
Once they get a proposal, it would be studied, but a formal representation has to come from the State government, they said.
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