Mangalore, August 8th:The roof of DK Zilla Panchayat Higher Primary School, which was established three decades ago, at Bajal Padpu, has collapsed on Friday August 8th, following incessant rains over a week. A request in the ZP office regarding the repair of the school is kept pending since a year.
After visiting at the site following the incident, Mangalore south MLA Mr J R Lobo has sanctioned Rs 4.50 lakh from the MLA fund as a temporary solution to the long-pending problem of the school .More than 150 children are taught in this school.
There were no funds left for repair work in the treasury stated the Chief executive officer Tulasi Maddineni of the zilla panchayat .she was out of station on an official trip and would visit the school soon she added.
“A financial crisis is being faced by the Zilla Panchayat. To repair all the schools under the Zilla Panchayat, an estimate of 30 crore is required and there are no dedicated funds” said Maddineni. On probing about the memorandum requesting repair works, She said only towards the infrastructural development of rural schools, the ZP was spending money.
Fund under the Sarva Shikshana Abhiyana is utilised during every monsoon to undertake patch work of the school built in the year 1978. A temporary solution was drawn up a year ago for repairing the roofs of the buildings and School had spent about Rs 20,000 on this said Jaya, headmistress of the school.
“As the building is too old it is unable to withstand the heavy showers that have been incessantly pouring over the last week. There were no responses to the memorandums sent to corporates, MLAs, and ZP. Today, luck has favoured the school where there were no injuries caused. The school had shifted most of the students to a nearby hall expecting some unfavourable incident,” she added.
A parent named Fahira, who sends her siblings 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 limit 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 said that the condition of the hall is not different and the school has to be rebuilt to ensure the safety of the children.
From the funds granted by the MLA, the department will exclusively focus on repair of the hall which has RCC roof which is able to occupy more students said the Block education officer Mr Jnaneshwar. Any leftover funds would be utilized to rebuild the tail-roofed building he added.
Courtesy: kannadiga world