For the over 570 Navodaya schools spread across the country, this summer holiday is proving to be a very busy time. A letter sent on May 21 has set them a project, of improving a green area each called ?Rajiv Gandhi Smriti Van? on their premises with the former prime minister?s statue installed within, by the time Rajiv Gandhi?s birth anniversary comes along on August 20.
Newly anointed Commissioner of Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), IAS officer Manoj Singh believes this is a fitting tribute to the prime minister under whose tenure the schools came up, and to mark 25 years of the Jawahar Navodaya schools.
Given the time on their hands, the principals have been reminded to preferably ?use fast-growing plants, locally available and suitable as per climatic conditions, soil, availability of water? and so on, so that the green corner looks presentable when the busts are installed. The seeds must be planted by July 31, and the job treated as ?top-most priority, the letter says.
The chain of schools was started in 1985-86 to provide quality education to talented children in rural areas.
Commissioner Singh has sent the letter to principals of all Navodaya Vidyalayas as well as Deputy Commissioners of the schools? regional offices, asking them to ?suitably and appropriately? install the busts of Rajiv at ?a prominent place in the Rajiv Gandhi Smriti Van?. NVS sources confirmed the move.
Students apart from a staff member are to be made charge of trees planted in the Rajiv Gandhi Smirit Van. The Commissioner?s letter says no labour should be employed for the purpose and the ?responsibility… shall rest with the principal?. The NVS Commissioner will seek a report on the issue by August 31.
Thirty-five new school buildings are also likely to be inaugurated on August 20, Rajiv Gandhi?s 66th birth anniversary. That?s not all. To make Rajiv?s legacy even more long lasting, the Navodaya Vidyalaya Old Boys? Association is set to rename itself ?Rajivites?.