Gujarat: Diamond baron to rebuild alma mater

BHAVNAGAR: He scripted a sparkling success story by building a diamond business that spans three countries. And, the 73-year-old businessman Dungarshi Goti is indebted to the lessons learnt in a government primary school that he studied in Vallabhipur village of Bhavnagar district.
Sitting in swanky offices in the US, Hong Kong and Dubai, where his businesses are located, Goti frequently slips into nostalgia thinking about ‘Kendravarti Shala’ (earlier known as Taluka Shala), which helped him make a strong foundation for the future.
As a son of the soil, Goti is now helping this 160-year-old school building get a fresh look. In fact, his children also studied in the same school.
“My father studied here, I also got education in this school and so did my children. We have an emotional bonding as it was the only one in the village then,” recalls Goti.
Goti decided to help rebuild this school when he got to know that the structure was getting dilapidated and requires urgent repairs.
“I decided to rebuild it on my own. We will bear all the expenses and the current estimate suggests that Rs 1.25 crore will be required,’’ he added. Once complete, this school will have 16 rooms, a dome, computer lab and all other modern facilities. The modern infrastructure will help students as most of them come from financially weak backgrounds.
Goti aims to rebuild this into a grand school campus on the lines of any other modern-day private institution.
“I can very well understand the importance of a public school in educating children coming from socially and economically poor backgrounds’’ he added.
Ajitsinh Solanki, a retired school teacher, who is associated with the project, told TOI: “We appreciate the efforts of Dungarshibhai in rebuilding the government school. He personally takes keen interest as the construction is underway and visits the site regularly to give his inputs.”
Solanki was awarded by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A) for his innovation in education.