Balasore train accident: Parents refuse to send children to school where dead bodies were kept

Parents of students of a school in Bahanaga, where the dead bodies of victims of the Balasore train accident were kept, are now refusing to let their children go back to the premises. The school was hastily turned into a temporary morgue, following the deadly train accident that claimed the lives of 288 people and injured over 1,000.

The school management committee has now requested the government to demolish the 65-year-old school building of the Bahanaga High School, located near the Bahanaga Bazar railway station. 

According to a report in Aaj Tak, parents of the students are getting nervous to send their children back to the building. However, the committee has said that the reason for their request to demolish the school is the age of the building. 

Pramila Swain, headmistress of the Bahanaga High School, has said that the young children are scared to come back to the school. The school has planned to organise ‘spiritual programmes’ and conduct rituals in order to remove the fear from the minds of these children. Swain added that some of the senior students and NCC cadets of the school had also participated in the rescue operation. 

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The School and Mass Education Department had directed Balasore collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb to visit the school. He said that after meeting the headmistress and the staff, he has learned that everyone wants to demolish the old building and construct a new one. 

The collector was told by a member of the school committee that the children saw on TV that the dead bodies were kept in the school building, after which the children got nervous to return to school on June 16.

The school premises were sanitised after the bodies were taken to Bhubaneswar. However, the parents and children are in a state of panic. 

The school committee had earlier given permission to keep the dead bodies in only three classes but the district administration had to keep the bodies in the open hall for identification. 

District Education Officer (DEO) Bishnu Charan Sutar organised a meeting to motivate the students and parents. He also said that no student will be out of school. “We will ensure that no student is out of school. The school and the local people have contributed a lot in the rescue and relief operation. The District Collector said that he has asked the school committee to pass a resolution demanding the demolition of the building and hand it over to the government. He also said that the school building is old and is often used to shelter people during floods. The school can be renovated under the transformation program,” said Sutar. 

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