Faridabad :
Launching a drive against the play (pre-primary) schools operating illegally at various localities here, Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF) has sealed five schools in the past couple of days. Notices have also been issued to 30 more schools.

The move comes after the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which has sought an action-taken report from the authorities concerned in response to a petition filed by the Innovative Pre-primary Schools Association, a body of playschools here.

The petitioner had alleged operation of several illegal schools in the city and that no action had been taken to check the menace.

Revealing that while a total of 35 such schools have been identified, Ashutosh Rajan, Joint Commissioner, MCF (Old Faridabad Zone), said that five of the schools, which failed to respond to the show-cause notice, have been sealed.

He said 30 schools are under the scanner and have been issued notices already.

The officials concerned said that while 27 schools are located in Old Faridabad Zone, five are in the NIT zone and two in Ballabgarh zone. One school has been operating outside all the three zones of the MCF.

The schools sealed by the officials are located in Sectors 28, 86 and 89 and Kheri Pul area. The next date of hearing is October 8.

Earlier, the petitioner had claimed that while the members of the association had been running playschools on the sites allotted by the government at high premium, a large number of schools had mushroomed in the city. Those had been running without authorisation as their premises were not earmarked for schools in the master plan of the city.