Jaipur: The roof of a dilapidated classroom at Upper Primary School in Dovda block, Dungarpur district, collapsed Monday during school hours. The room had been locked since last year after being declared unsafe. Officials said that over 100 students were present in the school when the incident occurred.“Around 10 am Monday, roof of the unused, dilapidated room collapsed with a loud sound. Startled by the noise, students and teachers immediately rushed out of their classrooms and saw that the roof had collapsed,” said an official from the education department.Officials added that two rooms were in a dilapidated state since a long time and were declared unsafe last year. These rooms were used as stores to keep old items of the school. After the accident, teachers informed the local primary elementary education officer and chief block education officer.“The school has a total of 10 rooms, two of which were dilapidated. The roof of one of these rooms was declared unsafe. Proposals for repairing these rooms and installing new roofs have been submitted; the repairs will be carried out as soon we get approval,” added the official.On Tuesday, opposition leader Tikaram Jully accused the state govt of issuing entry bans instead of repairing schools, saying orders cannot prevent accidents. “Instead of fixing schools, if you introduce ‘No Entry’ measures just to hide your own failures, how can such accidents be prevented? Education minister, resign… a useless ‘double-engine’ govt,” shared Jully on X.State Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra said, “…how long will the roofs of govt schools keep collapsing? The incident of a school roof collapse in the Dovda block of Dungarpur has once again raised serious questions. If dilapidated schools were not repaired even after the accident in Jhalawar, then what kind of tragedy is the BJP govt waiting for?”
