Close shave for 70 students as Solan school building caves in

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 30

About 70 students of class VI and VIII of Sarvhitkari Shiksha Niketan (SSN) situated on the Kumarhatti bypass had a miraculous escape when a portion of their school building, including their classrooms on the fourth floor, caved in this morning.

Alert teachers of both the classes - Manisha Thakur and Ritika -spared no time and rushed the students out of the building as soon as they saw crevices appearing on the walls and loud creaking sound inside the classrooms. The students were in the midst of writing their second-term examinations when the mishap occurred. The students had a close shave and since there were no other staff members in other rooms on the remaining floors no loss of life was reported.

“As soon as we reached the ground rear portion of the building collapsed within minutes. Since vibrations had been felt initially in the window panes we assumed it to be an earthquake”, said the teachers, who looked shaken after the incident.

With a sizeable portion of the approach road too having caved in owing to the rains a few days ago the teachers had a tough time evacuating the students out of the school boundary.

The staff evacuated all the students from the remaining two blocks as well as a precaution though no damage was caused to the other buildings. The 39 students residing in the hostels were shifted to the hostel of Homeopathic College lying nearby while the day scholars were sent home.

As many as 380 students and about 21 staff members were present in the three blocks when the mishap occurred.

DSP Parwanoo Pramod Chauhan, who visited the spot, said a case under section 336 of the IPC has been registered against the management for endangering the lives of the staff and the students.

Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kanwar directed the school management not to operate the school in view of the imminent danger to the building as large crevices had appeared on its wall. He said SDM Solan will submit a preliminary report within 10 days. It will be ascertained whether the remaining portion of the building was safe or not. A detailed report into the cause of this mishap will also be prepared with the help of Executive Engineer PWD and other structural experts. This detailed report would be submitted within a month.

With the building having been constructed at a time when the Town and Country Planning Act was not in force in the area no building maps had been cleared and no subsequent permission to raise additional structures too had been obtained, disclosed Leela Shyam, Town Planner.

While a structural expert would ascertain the actual cause of the mishap a visit to the spot showed that the foundation of the building lacked adequate strength to withstand the weight of the five-storey structure. Though the school was operating here since 2001 construction was still underway in the collapsed portion.