Baramulla: Acting swiftly on a Greater Kashmir report highlighting the threat posed to 50 students by the dilapidated condition of a school building in the Frasthar area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, the Department of Education, Baramulla shifted the school to a safer location on Thursday.
The Zonal Education Officer (ZEO) Baramulla, Fayaz Ahmad said that after due consultation with the authorities, the school had been shifted to Panchayat Ghar temporally till a permanent building was constructed for the school.
“Keeping in view the safety of the students and staff, the school will now function from Panchayat Ghar. It will be a temporary arrangement till a new school building is constructed,” he said.
Greater Kashmir on Sunday highlighted the dilapidated condition of the Government Boys Middle School Frasthar, which despite being declared unsafe, functioned from the unsafe building, posing risk to the lives of 50 students.
The safety report of the school building submitted two years back suggested immediate dismantling of the existing school building as it could collapse at any moment.
“The front, back, right and left side of the school building walls have deviated from the plum line. The stonework in the foundation and brickwork in the superstructure is massively damaged. The walls above it are thus vulnerable to collapse,” the report stated. “The inner walls have bulged outward. About 70 percent of walls have developed major cracks from top to bottom and cannot be repaired. The building may collapse anytime and cause harmful damage.”
The safety report of the building had been issued by the Executive Engineer School Education Division Kashmir and was addressed to CEO Baramulla vide No Edu/EXN/Div-1/2984-86/20 dated November 4, 2020.
“The school building is unsafe for schooling and needs to be dismantled to accommodate the new construction that can be proposed at the site,” the report suggests.