Latest update September 17th, 2026 10:25 AM
Residents peeved over closure of play school
Dear Editor,
We the undersigned residents of No. 67 Village have been concerned for some time that a few religious zealots in the community are bent on closing a play school that has been operating in the Village since the late 1940s. The immediate issue is centered on the ownership/management of the play school and the young lady that serves as the teacher.
A recent remigrant who leads the charge to see the school closed or under his exclusive control refuses to part with the keys to the compound. He has already done so on several occasions in the past on the pathetic excuse that he forgot the keys in his car and had to run an errand. The results of course, no keys, no school.
He also claims that the teacher refuses to take instructions from him. Besides, he complains that her moral standards are far too lax for her to enter the mandir’s compound. In fact he freely uses the w- word in reference to her behaviour.
Parents and children shut out from the play school – padlock and chain visible in the centre of the gate.
At one meeting in February earlier this year, in the presence of a magistrate, it was agreed that construction at the Mandir, including efforts to dismantle the old play school would be set aside until the matter of the ownership/management of the mandir was resolved. A few persons were identified to secure a constitution to be followed by a village meeting to ratify and then decide on management committees for both the mandir and the play school.
Unknown to anyone the remigrant and a handful of regular attendees of the mandir decided that a village meeting was not required and proceeded to name an Executive Committee and a Board of Trustees. The latter, we are told, have been registered with the High Court which gives the remigrant and his supporters, exclusive control of the mandir and its properties – end of play school. This was made possible by the fact that the remigrant is the sole remaining trustee from a group of five that were elected by the village in the 1960s. The remaining four have since passed on.
What we have come to know subsequently is more frightening still. When one resident attempted to test the workings of the new management’s system and applied for membership he was politely asked to pay $400 and given a membership card. Two days later he received a hand written note pointing out that the receipt for the $400 and issuance of the membership card was a mistake and his membership was to be put on hold – until the criteria was put in place to accept new members.
When some villagers approached the local Praant of the Dharmic Sabha and asked for its intervention, suggesting that this was not a very good face of Hinduism, they were politely told that the remigrant was a known quantity bound to his own ways and beyond reason. Sorry, but no thank you!
Even the NDC has found it difficult to intervene despite the erection of one building last year in the compound without plan or permission and another one is about to be torn down and something else put in its place – no plan, no application to the NDC for permission to build. It appears that 800-1000 concrete blocks “cured and ready” inside the compound and more than 10 tons of sand in front of the building is not proof of anything.
Residents
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