Building Collapse: Early lunch Saves students’ lives

Thiruvananthapuram: Hundreds of students of Muttathara Sreedharan Memorial Government Model UP School on Wednesday escaped a major accident as one of the school structures collapsed. None of the students were present in the building at the time of the incident.

A portion of the building where the school mess hall and kitchen were located collapsed along with the roof around 1.30 p.m. As many as 225 students are studying in the school and because of the Onam exams, they had lunch earlier than usual. According to the authorities, if this had happened on a normal day, it would have been catastrophic. The agitated local people staged a dharna in front of the school. The collapsed structure was constructed just seven years ago raising serious allegations of lethargy on the part of the civic body.

Principal D. Sudharsanan said that the school authorities had reported to the authorities when a crack occurred on the wall of the collapsed structure two days back. “Fortunately, nobody was inside the structure when it happened. We gave a written complaint at Fort police station. Similar complaints would be submitted to the collector and the corporation on Thursday,” said Mr Sudharsanan. He said that routine maintenance works were carried out and this was never anticipated.

The city corporation constructed the building at a cost of Rs 25 lakh in 2007. “There is a flaw in the construction and we suspect corruption. The contractor who did the work should be penalised and the corporation should take action against the officials invo-lved in the project,” said PTA president Sreevaraham Murali. He said that there were other structures in the school which are over 50 years old.

“This happened because of shoddy construction. The building deteriorated fast and massive renovation works were carried out in the recent past,” said Mr Murali.

Councillor B. Rajendran said that the construction happened during the previous tenure. Health minister V.S. Sivakumar has granted Rs 50 lakh from the MLA fund to construct a new building for the school.