School’s ground floor goes ‘underground’ in Kerala

KOCHI: A school building in Ernakulam district is allegedly caving in because it was built in a paddyfield which was filled years ago.

The school in question is Toc-H (R) Public School at Kadungamangalam, Thiruvankulam, under Chottanikkara panchayat, and a probe has been conducted on the orders of the District Collector into the issue over concerns that the life of 500-odd students studying up to Class XII is in peril.

A team from the district administration led by a deputy collector and officials of the PWD visited the school the other day. A visit to the school, which follows the CBSE syllabus, can identify that three-fourths of its ground floor is covered with sand and is no longer in use.

The school authorities said that they raised the ground level when water from uncultivated paddyfields around began to flood the compound due to constructions nearby that blocked the flow of water.

“After the railways filled the nearby area and a big residential complex came up, the water from the Konoth river and Andhakara canal could not flow out and began to flood our campus since 2006. We then filled the ground and raised its level and so had to give up the ground floor. The building at no point caved in,” said school principal Juney George adding even her children and that of the staff study in the school.