The Odisha government on June 9 announced it would demolish and reconstruct a portion of the Bahanaga High School that was used as a makeshift mortuary to preserve corpses of people who lost their lives in the deadly train accident on June 2, involving the Coromandel Express.
Teachers, parents and students are opposed to continuing at the same campus as the images of death will linger for a while.
Also read: Odisha train crash | 89 bodies await identification at AIIMS Bhubaneswar
Four different classrooms were converted into temporary assembly points. The 65-year-old school is just 500 metres from the accident site. The district administration had immediately sanitised the schools. It now has to deal with the physological impact on parents and students.
Senior officials including Chief Secretary P. K. Jena, 5T Secretary V. K. Pandian and the School and Mass Education Secretary met the school management committee, teachers, students and elected representatives of the panchayati raj.
“Considering the students mental well being, the primary and elementary buildings will be razed and reconstructed,” the Chief Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Balasore district magistrate Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde, who visited the school and interacted with parents on Thursday, said, “during consultation, two students got up and said they were using one of the rooms as dining hall. Blood stains could be seen on benches and desks. The government decided to raze five to six classrooms.”
Incidentally, the school management committee had earlier submitted a resolution urging the government to redevelop the school, Mr. Shinde said, dismissing reports that a fear of ghosts was behind the decision.
The district administration would immediately release ₹8 lakh. The district collector said he hoped to complete the building before summer vacation is over.
