In a tragic incident, a seven-year-old boy from Karnataka’s Chikkaballapura district died after the compound wall of a government school fell on him.
Arun was a Class 2 student at the Dibbur Government Primary School. At around 12.30 pm on Tuesday, he was playing outside the school after the mid-day meal when the school’s compound wall and gate collapsed on him.
Since the wall had collapsed on his body entirely, Arun began bleeding profusely. His classmates alerted the teachers, who rushed him to the government hospital.
“Since his injuries were serious, he was immediately transferred to Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru. The boy’s arms and legs were injured. His lungs were punctured too. Arun did not respond to treatment and succumbed to his injuries,” a doctor at Victoria Hospital told TNM.
Soon after the incident, the Chikkaballapura Tahsildar and officials with the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) visited the school to inspect the scene.
Arun’s parents Chandrappa and Netravati allege that a portion of the school’s compound wall had been constructed eight months ago under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and that the contractors had done a shoddy job.
Corroborating their version, an official with DPI said that the Dibbur Gram Panchayat had contracted the construction of the compound wall to a third party eight months ago.
“The wall was built but the gate was not installed eight months ago. Four days ago, the contractor brought a few workers and fixed a new gate. The problem is that one side of the compound wall was new and the other side was really old. That’s why it collapsed,” an official in the Tahasildar’s office said.
DPI officials say that the construction was done shoddily, which led to the collapse. Arun’s parents have filed a complaint against the MNREGA contractor and two engineers responsible for the construction of the compound wall.
“We have to find out who the contractor was. So far a case of criminal negligence has been registered against the unidentified contractor and the two engineers,” the Chikkaballapura Rural Police said.