'Ensure all minority schools have basic facilities'

BENGALURU: The high court on Thursday directed the state government to ensure that all minority schools in the state have basic facilities like drinking water, toilets, teachers and so on as per the apex court's directive. "It is now your (state government's) headache, our headache is over," a division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee told advocate-general Prof Ravivarma Kumar while disposing of a PIL filed by Bengaluru-based Azim Premji Foundation. The Supreme Court, in its October 2012 judgment in the Environment and Consumer Protection Foundation vs Delhi Administration and others case, had ordered that schools across the country, whether government, aided, private or minority, must provide in six months toilet facilities separately for boys and girls, drinking water, sufficient classrooms and teaching and non-teaching staff. Earlier, the counsel for the foundation informed the court that they won't press for imposition of a minimum 75% minority students for schools to get the minority tag under RTE Act. She requested the court to ask the state to comply with the SC directive on basic facilities though. The AG had earlier informed the court that the June 18, 2014 notification seeking to reduce the percentage of minority students from 75% to 25% for a minority school was issued after it was observed that sufficient students were not available. State's response on hoardings sought:  A division bench sought the government's response in four weeks on a resolution passed and sent by BBMP in January to ban ad hoardings in the city. The court is hearing a PIL that seeks action against a 2006 resolution that aims to make 14 roads free of hoardings/ad boards. -TOI