Months on, unsafe rooms in 10 Ambala govt schools yet to be razed

Nitish Sharma

Ambala, July 24

Even after being declared unsafe earlier this year, the process to demolish the unsafe rooms in 10 government schools in Ambala is yet to begin.

Sources said the Education Department had identified 33 unsafe rooms in 10 government primary and senior secondary schools.

As per a list, rooms of Government Primary Schools at Mirzapur, Matheri Jattan, Lakhnaura Sahib, Rawalon, Police Lines, and Kalrehri were declared unsafe. Similarly, rooms of the Government Girls Senior Secondary School Baldev Nagar, and government senior secondary schools at Baldev Nagar, Ghel, and Rambagh road were also declared unsafe earlier this year, but the reserve price was yet to be declared.

Gurcharan Singh, a panch of the Rawalon gram panchayat, who reached Education Department’s office in Ambala City, said, “I have made repeated rounds of the Education Department to get the primary school’s building demolished, but to no avail. There are four rooms in the schools and all four were declared unsafe, and if any untoward incident takes place, who will be responsible for the loss? There are about 30 students at Rawalon Primary School and it had also experienced waterlogging during the recent floods. The department should make some temporary arrangements.”

An official said the declaration of unsafe structure as condemned and fixing reserve price for the auction in an extensive process. After getting the reserve price, the school management committees concerned will get the structure demolished. A list of unsafe rooms was sent by the office of the District Project Coordinator of Samagra Shiksha to the PWD (B&R) and later, reminders were also sent, requesting the department to fix the reserve price for the unsafe rooms.

Sub-Divisional Officer, civil engineering wing of Samagra Shiksha, Rahul Bhardwaj, said, “The rooms were declared unsafe and the rough cost estimates of the dilapidated school buildings were submitted to the PWD for verification and declaration of the reserve price so that further process could be initiated. While the reserve price for the schools of the Saha and Barara blocks has been received, the verification report of the schools of block-1 is yet to be received.”

Meanwhile, DEO Ambala Suresh Kumar said, “Rooms of a few senior secondary schools were also declared unsafe and a list was sent to get the reserve price fixed. I will take up the matter with the officials concerned so that the unsafe rooms could be demolished soon.”

The Executive Engineer concerned of the PWD (B&R) couldn’t be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Waiting for reserve price

The rooms of primary schools were declared unsafe in February this year and the staff were directed not to use these. If any school has no extra room, the schools can raise demand and new rooms will be built according to the strength of students. After getting the reserve price, the unsafe rooms will be demolished. — Sudhir Kalra, district elementary education officer