A grim tale of two government schools in Mohali where students face garbage and scrap menace daily. Heaps of garbage, horticulture and construction waste greets students every morning and evening outside the boundary wall of the Government Senior Secondary School, Phase-3B1. Unhygienic conditions and foul smell have become a routine affair here as the Municipal Corporation sanitation staff does not lift waste from here regularly.

Area residents have no shame in dumping garbage outside the school and right in front of Vaishno Devi Temple here.

Staff members said seeing ever growing piles of garbage in the residential area, nearby residents also started dumping their waste, contributing to the mess.

Students say foul smell pervades here morning and evening as they enter and leave the school. Mohali Municipal Corporation officials were unavailable for a comment on the issue.

At Mullanpur, the mounting pile of case properties outside the ML Puri School of Eminence, Mullanpur Garibdas, has encroached on the playground. Besides an eyesore just outside the school, it is a potential health hazard too. There is always a risk from snakes, scorpions and insects breeding in the junkyard as children play in the vicinity. Case properties, accidental vehicles, scrap and garbage is increasing day by day, say village residents and kin of students.

School staff said the old building of the police station was adjacent to the boundary wall of the institution. They said, “The police dumps case properties and scarp behind the wall which affects school environment.”

Ironically, the Mullanpur police station is being run from a makeshift arrangement as officials have failed to shift it to new building some distance away. For almost two years, the new building is gathering dust and has become a refuge for anti-social element.

Mullanpur residents and parents of students demanded that scrap be removed from the school playground so that a healthy environment can be given to students here.