Close shave for pupils of Sec 53 smart school

Amarjot Kaur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 15

Students of Government High School, Sector 53, which was inaugurated in 2012 as the city’s first government-run smart school, had a narrow escape when the bricks stuck to its RCC beam fell off soon after the morning assembly concluded on Saturday. While there was no casualty, the incident has brought the building’s construction quality under scanner.

Students said they were about to ascend the ramp leading to their respective classes when the bricks started falling off the concrete brace. “As soon as the assembly got over, we were walking towards the ramp when we saw some 20 odd bricks falling off the joist. Our teachers Sukhbir sir and Sunil sir asked us to stop and within ten minutes, the entire layer of bricks plastered on the beam fell off. It was scary,” said Ritik, Priya, Vishal, Chanda and Devi of Class X.

The incident also shocked the school principal, RD Sharma, who took charge of the office in July last year. “In my tenure, this is the first such incident,” he said. “I was told about the previous such incidents, but this one could have been fatal as the area where it happened is right next to the ground and many children like to play there. Fortunately, no student was hurt in the incident. I had intimated the engineering department about it and junior engineer Anshul, along with the executive engineer, visited the spot In fact, Anshul has been frequenting the school because of the ongoing maintenance work as the floor of the building has been sinking too."

More than 1,100 students from neighbouring slums and colonies study at the school. "I was told that only a few bricks fell off the beam, but I will be visiting the school tomorrow to take stock, on the basic of which I will file a report. Such an incident speaks volumes about the quality of construction material used by the builder," said Anujit Kaur, District Education Officer.

“The District Education Officer has brought this incident to my notice. I will be asking the UT Chief Engineer to visit the spot tomorrow and see what led to the incident,” said Rubinderjit Singh Brar, Director School Education.