7 kids die, 21 injured as classroom roof collapses in Jhalawar village

Kota/Jaipur: Seven children were killed and at least 21 injured when a classroom ceiling collapsed on them at Piplodi Govt Upper Primary School in Jhalawar district Friday morning, moments after a teacher who had been alerted to "falling brick pieces" allegedly asked them to "sit quietly". Ten of the injured students were hospitalised in a critical condition, officials said.

Principal Meena Garg and four teachers were suspended for alleged negligence pending a high-level inquiry, while state school education minister Madan Dilawar owned moral responsibility for the 7.40am tragedy.

"I won't engage in a blame game. Being the education minister, I am responsible for this…We will conduct a fair investigation and strict action will be taken against those found guilty. We allocated funds for the maintenance of 2,000 dilapidated govt schools in phases," Dilawar said.

Late night, minister Dilawar announced that families of the deceased children will be given Rs 10 lakh each and one family member each will be given a contractual govt job.

He also announced that classrooms in the new school building that would be built at the same place will be named after the deceased children.

Outrage over the ceiling collapse triggered violence in Jhalawar in the evening, prompting police to baton charge groups of protesters blocking roads and pelting them with stones at Guradi Circle and outside SRG Hospital.

The victims, between 10 and 15, were among 31 students of different classes inside the classroom when cracks in the ceiling suspected to have been caused by rainwater seepage purportedly opened up before their eyes. "We told sir that pieces of the ceiling were falling on us but he ignored it," said a teary-eyed girl.

Within seconds, screams of children drowned in the ominous noise of brick and mortar coming down in a heap. Villagers who had sprinted towards the school compound on seeing clouds of dust spiralling into the air were the first rescuers, sources said.

Witnesses said parents frantically searched for their children in the mounds of debris. "At least 13 kids were pulled out within 20 minutes of the ceiling collapse," said village sarpanch Ram Prasad Lodha, who drove his payloader to the site to assist in the rescue.

Lodha alleged that an ambulance reached the village 45 minutes after being informed of the accident. Most of the injured students were taken to hospital on motorcycles, he said.

While the education minister's office said 21 students were injured, Jhalawar district education officer Narso Meena's official report mentions injuries to 24 people.

Preliminary reports suggested the students had been made to wait in their classrooms instead of going to the ground for morning prayers, as usual, because it was raining at the time. The classroom's rear wall collapsed first, causing the stone-slab roof to fall on the students.

The classroom whose ceiling collapsed was one of two built in 1994 with funds from the gram panchayat. "Funds were released recently for repairs. We aren't sure if the rooms built by the gram panchayat were renovated or not," said an official.

Collector Ajay Singh Rathore said the district administration recently instructed the education department to draw up a list of dilapidated school buildings. Piplodi Govt Upper Primary School, whose building is three decades old, didn't figure in that list, he said.

Education secretary Krishna Kunal said the school's roof had been repaired in 2023. "If a little caution were exercised, such a tragedy wouldn't have occurred. We are appealing not only to teachers but also to parents and village representatives that children should not be sent to schools with dilapidated rooms."

The district administration has already razed other rundown portions of the school to avoid another potential disaster during the monsoon.

Jhalawar adjoins Kota district, which school education minister Dilawar represents in the assembly. Congress demanded Dilawar's resignation, saying the tragedy occurred in the minister's backyard and on his watch. People took to social media to question the accountability of ex-CM Vasundhara Raje and her parliamentarian son Dushyant Singh also, as the family has been representing Jhalawar for nearly four decades.