HP to conduct survey of unsafe school buildings

Updated on: Thursday, March 03, 2011

The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to conduct a survey of 16,000-odd school buildings in the state following the collapse of the boundary wall of the Senior Secondary School, Chhattarpur Dhadha in Una district in which four students died.

All the school buildings would be surveyed and all unsafe buildings dismantled, while the damaged buildings would be repaired.

"Government is seriously concerned about the safety of children and would not allow recurrence of such incidents in future and ensure quality of construction of school buildings", Education minister I D Dhiman said.

The boundary wall which collapsed in Una school last month was constructed with public participation under "Vikas Main Jan Sahyog" programme and the technical guidance of the Public Wroks Department were issued to the department soon after the fatal incident.

The children were sitting close to the wall to protect themselves against strong winds but they were buried under the debris when the structure collapsed.

Mild tremors had occurred in the area two days ago and stormy conditions had also shaken the wall.

Dhiman said as per the enquiry conducted by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), the wall collapsed due to technical fault as 5.9 ft high wall was raised on 3 ft high old wall without ascertaining whether the foundation could bear the additional load.

The government had accepted the recommendations made in the enquiry report to ensure the quality of construction and made it mandatory for the junior engineer concerned to carry out at least three inspections.

HP to conduct survey of unsafe school buildings

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