Army fences school ground

Until last Friday Tyagi Education Societyrsquos Indian Education Academy English Medium School in Khadki had a twoacre playground On Saturday when the students reached the school they discovered that the army had fenced off the playgroundu00a0The school management reportedly has been fighting a legal battle with the army since 2004 over the ownership of the twoacre playgroundu00a0ldquoAs usual our football team practised at the ground on Friday But when I came on Saturday I was stunned to see that the ground was fenced and some army men with their weapons were placed at the groundrdquo a class VIII student saidu00a0 No entry Kids walk past the playground School authorities say army personnel fenced it on Friday evening Tyagi Education Society Manager Samrat Tyagi said the Tyagi family has owned this land since 1984 and built a school here in 1996 u00a0ldquoThe entire three acres mdash land on which the school building stands and the ground mdash is an old grant property and we have enough documents to prove that the land belongs to usrdquo Tyagi said u00a0He alleged that army personnel illegally fenced the ground u00a0ldquoNone of the army officials intimated us about this Around 400 armed men forcefully fenced the ground on Friday eveningrdquo Tyagi said u00a0 He said the army personnel first visited the property way back in 1993 After that the army did not do anything for ten years But in 2003 some of its officials visited the ground and mapped it u00a0ldquoThough the officials didnrsquot disclose their purpose of visit we realised that something was amiss following which we filed a case in civil court on January 9 2004rdquo Tyagi saidu00a0 The civil court in its September 5 2006 order stated ldquoIt is hereby declared that the acts of the defendants Army in attempting to erect fence and evict the plaintiff school management from the part of the suit premises is illegal and contrary to the law Defendants Army are hereby permanently restrained from fencing to the playground without following the due process of lawrdquo Armyrsquos defence Estate Officer at Commander of Station Headquarters Khadki Brigadier Balraj Singh said everything was done as per the law u00a0ldquoWe have not touched the school building It is A1 defence land and we need it for defence training purposesrdquo Singh said ldquoThe rules under which the action was taken are correct We have given enough chance to the school authorities to explain their siderdquou00a0 The army also issued a statement on Tuesday evening clarifying their stand on the issue Defence Public Relations Officer Sanjay Arvikar issued the statement u00a0The statement read ldquoMr Satish Jaysing Tyagi under Tyagi Educational Institute is running a School in Bungalow No 29 A at Khadkiu00a0The school complex is housed in an Old Grant Bungalow meant for residential purpose The school is therefore being run in an unauthorised manner as the permission for change of purpose has not been obtained from the Defence Estate Officer This Defence land was being used by the schoolu00a0in unauthorised manneru00a0 In October 2011 the Estate Officer had issued letters to the Satish Jaysing Tyagi for hearing of the case under PPE Act and eight hearings were conducted by the Estate Officer in order to provide due opportunity to him After considering all facts of the case the Estate Officer gave his orders on September 21 2012 On the orders of the Estate Officer the army unit responsible to safeguard the said land carried out the fencing of theu00a0A1 Defence Land The army has fenced only the portion of the land which belongs to it and is responsible for its safeguardrdquou00a0 u00a0 1196u00a0Number of children studying in the school mdash from preprimary to Std X