Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SHS)

Mangalore, Aug 8: Following incessant rains over a week, the roof of DK Zilla Panchayat Higher Primary School, Bajal Padpu, established three decades ago, collapsed on Friday August 8, even as a memorandum urging repair of the school is sitting in the ZP office since one year.

However, in a temporary respite to the long-pending problem of the school that teaches more than 150 children, Mangalore south MLA J R Lobo sanctioned Rs 4.50 lac from the MLA fund after he visited the site following the incident.

Meanwhile, chief executive officer Tulasi Maddineni of the zilla panchayat said that there were no funds left for repair work in the treasury and she would visit the school soon as she was out of station on an official trip.

Maddineni said, “The ZP is now faced with a financial crunch. We have no dedicated fund for the repair works and as much as Rs 30 crore is needed if we have to repair all schools under ZP." When asked about the memorandum requesting repair works, she said that the ZP was only spending money on the infrastructural development of rural schools.

“For a building built in the year 1978, the school during every monsoon, undertakes patch work from a fund earmarked under the Sarva Shikshana Abhiyana. I remember, last year a temporary solution was drawn up for repairing the roofs of the buildings,” said Jaya, headmistress of the school. The school had spent about Rs 20,000 on this.

“However, as the building is very old it failed to withstand the heavy rains that have been incessantly pouring over the last week. Memorandums sent to corporates, MLAs, and ZP have not seen any response. Today, luck favoured the school in that there were no injuries caused. The school had shifted most of the students to a nearby hall expecting some untoward incident,” she added.

Fahira, a parent who sends her children to the school, said no place in the school is safe. “There are two buildings, one built in 1986 and another in 1978. The buildings are posing severe threat as they are on the verge of collapse. We are having second thoughts about sending our children to school,” she added.

When asked about the new hall where most of the students have been shifted, she lamented that the condition of the hall is also no different and added that the school has to be rebuilt to ensure the safety of the children.

Block education officer Jnaneshwar said that the department will exclusively focus on repair of the hall which has RCC roof, from the funds granted by the MLA, since the hall has the capacity to accommodate more number of students. He added that any leftover funds would be utilized to rebuild the tail-roofed building.