Ludhiana: No action yet on crumbling school building despite four letters by head

It is yet to declare the building unsafe as heavy rainfall has made the condition worse and students have to adjust in four classrooms. The walls, windows and ceiling of the entire building have become very weak.

The government primary school at Jahangirpur village of Ludhiana. Express Photo

Water seeping through cracked ceilings and walls during rain, broken window panes and roots of old trees peeping out of damaged walls — this is the scenario inside the government primary school at Jahangirpur village of Ludhiana. However, the education department and Public Works Department (PWD) is unmoved, despite the probability that the school building can collapse anytime, putting lives of around 200 children at risk. It is yet to declare the building unsafe as heavy rainfall has made the condition worse and students have to adjust in four classrooms. The walls, windows and ceiling of the entire building have become very weak.

Water seeps through the cracks in the ceiling. (Express photo)

Since the departments do not have any alternative, they are not declaring classrooms unsafe, putting the lives of more than 200 children at stake, said Manmohan Singh, head teacher of the school, who has written at least four letters in the past week, stating that due to heavy rain, the school building, which is already in a very bad shape, can collapse anytime. So, it should be declared unsafe at the earliest so that they can move kids out, but there has been no action till Saturday.

Singh, who has written to the block primary education officer, local MLA Sanjay Talwar and local PWD officials, said the school has more than 200 kids. “There are four classrooms and all of them are unsafe. Despite our several letters to various departments, the PWD is not declaring the building unsafe and lives of children are being put at stake,” he said.

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Rains have left the school in a bad shape. (Express photo)

Kuldeep Saini, Deputy District Education Officer, said a report from the PWD engineers is awaited to declare the building unsafe. “We are looking for some other arrangement, till a new building is constructed. Meanwhile, teachers can hold classes in the local gurdwara,” he said.

Unofficially, the head teacher has been asked to look for space and even contact local gurdwara.

“They (government) have no other space and we have been told to move to nearby gurdwara, but through unofficial verbal orders. A major tragedy is awaiting. Even roots of old trees have entered deep inside walls. We get scared when any child moves closer to any wall,” said Singh.

(Express photo)

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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