Mangalore : The roof of the DK Zilla Panchayat Hr. Primary school Bajal Padpu collapsed on Friday August 8, due to incessant rains that have lasted over a week.

The school, was established three decades ago and is the source of education for over 150 children.  MLA J R Lobo sanctioned Rs 4.50 lac from the MLA fund after he visited the site following the incident, this, even as a memorandum urging repair of the school is sitting in the ZP office since one year due to a lack of funds.

According to chief executive officer Tulasi Maddineni who not able to visit the spot as she was out of station, “Rs 30 crore is needed if we have to repair all schools under ZP. At the moment the ZP is spending money it has only on building school infrastructure”. 
Every year temporary patch work is being carried out which does not resolve the problem and the children continue to be at grave risk.

Parents say that no place in the school is safe. While the original building was built in 1978, a second building was built in 1986. Parents are scared to send their children to school, because they feel the buildings can collapse any time. They say even the new hall where most of the children have been shifted is not much different. What is needed they feel is a complete renovation.

Block education officer Jnaneshwar said that the department will exclusively focus on repair of the hall which has RCC roof, from the funds granted by the MLA, since the hall has the capacity to accommodate more number of students. He added that any leftover funds would be utilized to rebuild the tail-roofed building.