HYDERABAD:Heart-breaking scenes were witnessed outside the New Century Public School in Kukatpally on Friday as parents of Chandana Sri and Mani Keerthana, sat in protest with corpses of their children who were studying in Class 4 of the school and died on Thursday after roof of a structure collapsed on them. Their parents demanded arrest of the school management, harsh punishment for them and also compensation from the government. Naresh, one of the injured students is critical and fighting for life in Apollo Hospital.
The tragedy has left a family bereft of their only girl child. Manikeerthana’s paternal grandmother D Padma, is inconsolable as she tells Express that she was intelligent in studies and aimed to become a doctor. “She always said she would become a doctor in future so that she would be able to take care of me. She was the only girl child in my entire family. But just the carelessness of this money hungry school management left my entire family with a big loss.” she said.
Another deceased Chandana Sri’s family had migrated from Krishna district for livelihood. Her father Nagababu ekes out a living by working at construction sites. He said though there was harassment from the school when payment of fees were delayed, he did not want to change the school owing to its proximity to their home. Nagababu’s mother-in-law Lakshmi, who came from Krishna district a few days ago to meet the family said that though she was living away from her daughter, it gave her solace that her grandchildren were studying in an English medium school. “But now nothing is left for us here,” she said.
After the autopsy at Gandhi hospital on Friday morning, hundreds of parents flanked by their relatives staged a protest at the school. Rampage in the school premises, however, started much before the protestors arrived on the spot. A few parents barged into the school, damaging the furniture and the school’s van.
MLA announces compensation
Kukatpally MLA M Krishna Rao announced a compensation of `5 lakh each to the families of the deceased students and `1 lakh to the injured students. He also said that the complete treatment expenses for the injured students will be borne by the government.
Investigation expedited
While two persons are reportedly in police custody for questioning, they said three teams are searching for the school owner. A Venkateswar Rao, DCP Madhapur said cases will be booked against those who went on a rampage and damaged property on the school premises on charges of criminal trespass.
Surprise checks on private schools in Hyderabad to begin from next week
Hyderabad: Close on the heels of the accident which resulted in the death of two students in a private school in Kukatpally under Medchal district, officials of School Education department in Hyderabad district have woken up and decided that they will be conducting surprise inspection from next week in all private schools of the city. There are around 2,500 private schools in Hyderabad district. Speaking to Express, Venkata Narasamma, District Education Officer of Hyderabad said that the surprise inspection will held with the support of GHMC engineers officials on strength of schools buildings and other infrastructure related safety measures within the district.