Podiyadi: Four decades after funds were remitted to acquire land, Puthiyakavu Government High School in Nedumbram, the only government school in the panchayat, continues to wait for space to establish a playground.

Despite repeated complaints to the authorities over the years, including submissions during the Navakerala Sadas of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, no action has been initiated so far. The 125-year-old school currently has around 200 students, from pre-primary to Class 10 and has maintained a 100% pass rate in the SSLC examinations for the past 17 years.

The biggest challenge faced by the school is limited space. While the law stipulates that a high school should have three acres of land with a mandatory playground, Puthiyakavu Government High School has only one acre and 10 cents of land.

Efforts to acquire additional land began with the School Development Committee in 1981–82.  After seven landowners had consented to hand over 1.90 acres of land located behind the school, the School Development Authority remitted ₹20,020 to the Thiruvalla Sub-Treasury on May 2, 1984. Following this, the landowners formally gave their consent to transfer their properties.

However, no follow-up action was taken by the government from that point. Even today, this area remains abandoned, overrun with weeds and shrubs. Hoping it would one day be acquired for the school, the landowners have never used the land for cultivation.

As land acquisition proceedings faced inordinate delays, the School Development Committee lodged a complaint with the District Collector. The authorities then directed the school to submit the landowners’ consent letters, copies of the deeds, and liability certificates.

The landowners, however, insisted they would cooperate only if the Revenue Department directly informed them about the land acquisition proceedings. Since then, the process has not moved forward even an inch. For four decades, the school has lacked a proper playground while this wide stretch of land has remained idle. Meanwhile, the funds remitted by the School Development Authority too remain unutilised.

During his tenure as a Rajya Sabha MP, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar even used funds from his Asset Development Fund to construct a new building for the school. Locals now complain that the state is showing little interest in the school compared to the support shown by Tendulkar.

Meanwhile, the Panchayat has already taken over another 90 cents of adjacent land to develop a playground and a stadium. If both properties are combined, a total of 2.8 acres will be available to benefit students and nurture sporting talent in the region.

The current School Development Committee and office bearers of the Ekalavya Club have submitted a memorandum to Finance Minister K N Balagopal, who recently visited to inaugurate construction works on the public stadium developed on the Panchayat-acquired property.