Humble driver donates land for school playground

A jeep driver, who barely earns a few thousand rupees a month, has donated five bighas of land for students of a government school to play in Sikar district of Rajasthan.

In a generous act, 30-year-old Major Ali, a father of two, donated five out of 14 bighas of his family land for the playground of a government secondary school in Lawanda village in Sikar.

Educated up to senior secondary level, Ali convinced his five brothers for the noble cause and the land was transferred to the school earlier this year and students of the school will get the new playground from this academic session.
 

Ali was among 109 donors who were honoured by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje at a state-level function here.

Along with Ali, a retired school principal Heeralal Meghwal also donated 3.75 bighas of land for the construction of a new building for the school which was upgraded from upper primary to secondary level last year.

Both pieces of land, donated by Ali and Meghwal, are located nearby.

"We, six brothers, jointly have 14 bighas of ancestral land in Lawanda village and do private work or as labourers. The school has the problem of playground and I wanted to do something for students therefore I decided to donate 5 bighas of land for the playground of the school," Ali told PTI.

He said he convinced his brothers to donate the land and all of them agreed and the registry of the land was done earlier this year.

Ali, who claims that the land is worth around Rs 30 lakh, said he could have done farming on the land but he feels proud of donating the land and is satisfied in his present job.

"I hardly early Rs 7-8,000 a month as a driver. This is not enough to run a family but somehow I manage. I took no time to decide to donate the land after the motivation from the school headmaster," he said.

Resham Lal Arora, the headmaster of the school, said he motivated local villagers and capable people to do something for the school voluntarily and Ali came forward to provide his land.