NAVI MUMBAI: An Ulwe-based village association has alleged that the BJP’s former member of parliament Ram Thakur has seized a major portion of its school property and constructed a building on it. They say he now runs a school on it named after his wife Shakuntala.
The building stands on 4,000 sq metres of land allotted by Cidco in sector 24 after the original site used by the village school was taken over for the Navi Mumbai International Airport project. Thakur has denied the allegation made by the village body known as the Shree Nandai Mata Chaargaon Punarbasan Samiti. He said he had legally acquired the property at Ulwe.
Originally known as the New English School in Ulwe village, it was established in 1992. The institution was a government-aided school with 18 rooms and around 250 students from classes 8-10, the villagers said. In 2018, Cidco demolished the structure to make way for the Navi Mumbai Airport. An alternate site measuring 4,000 sq metres in Ulwe sector 24 was allocated for it. In 2022, construction of the new four-storey school building was completed with funding mainly provided by Thakur. The Punarbasan Samiti found that the new complex was actually divided into two schools – a major portion was named ‘Sau. Shakuntala Ramseth Thakur Vidyalaya (CBSE), while a smaller section of the building, with three rooms, was called the original `New English School'.
Advocate Prashant Bhoir, who is the president of Shree Nandai Mata Chaargaon Punarbasan Samiti, alleged, “We have complained to the inspector of schools on various issues, including school land grab, land ownership, building property, among others, but our grievance has not been resolved.”
A Ulwe-based Shiv Sena leader Krishna Patil, said, “Political influence was used by the former MP, Ram Thakur, to take away the school property and to partly name it after his wife (Shakuntala). Villagers attached to the original school are barely left with anything at the rehabilitated site.”
The school was started by villagers of Ulwe, Targhar, Kombadbhuje, Ganeshpuri and Moha with contributions. They handed over the running of the school to the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha, Satara (which manages educational institutions across the state). It later became a government-aided school.
In 2022, after the relocation, the villagers learnt that the newly constructed school had been divided into two parts on land allotted to Rayat Shikshan Sanstha-Satara. Now, it houses both the original New English School with only three classrooms and a massive structure for Sau. Shakuntala Ramseth Thakur Vidyalaya (CBSE). Both are operated by Rayat Shikshan Sanstha. The former MP is linked to the Sanstha too and heads a few institutions across Navi Mumbai.
Dismissing the allegations against him, Thakur said, “The new school building’s construction has been funded by me. Everything was done legally. I am also the president of some of the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha-Satara-run educational institutions, like the one in Vashi.”
A local inspector of schools for Rayat Shikshan Sanstha, Rohidas Thakur, said, “Please ask Seth (ex-MP Ram Thakur) and others on the issue. I only heard about complaints.”
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