Due to poor work quality, a staircase being built at the Dodla Chenchu Ramaiah ZP High School in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh abruptly collapsed on Tuesday, December 13 evening. There were no casualties reported as the incident happened after school hours in the evening.
Under Nadu-Nedu (a programme launched by the Government of Andhra Pradesh to control the dropout rate in schools by upgrading infrastructure), the work was being undertaken. A group of Jana Sena Party leaders visited the school on Wednesday, December 14, and observed the activities taking place there under the direction of Party District General Secretary Gunugula Kishore.
Leaders of the Jana Sena Party (JSP) demanded an investigation into the incident and claimed that contractors were able to cover up the damaged structure while clearing away the wreckage right away. G Kishore criticised the leaders of the ruling party for hiring top contractors to build their own structures while leaving the work of the government to subcontractors who don't uphold high standards, as reported by The New Indian Express.
Third-party quality check needed
The incident at ZP School on Podalakur road is a classic example, said JSP leader G Kishore and he demanded that a quality check be done by a third-party agency on all works taken up in the district under Nadu Nedu. "There are no supervising staff members for monitoring the quality of work at all places and teachers are spectators who confine themselves to educational activity. There are 900 plus students in the school," the party leader said.
G Kishore also added that a few contractors are giving the district administration false information about the status of the work. He requested that a third-party team be sent by the district collector to inspect the state of the work and look for problems in all of the district's schools. He issued a warning about launching protests, saying that their party cadre would update about the situation and note the quality of the work so that they can submit it to the appropriate legal authorities.
Additionally, K Giridhar Reddy, State Secretary for the YSR Congress (Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party), visited the school on Wednesday, December 14, and stated that the Nadu Nedu programme is being implemented by the state government and threatened contractors with a harsh penalty if they didn't uphold quality. He criticised the administrators for not checking the level of quality of the work being done at DCR ZP High School, stated The New Indian Express report.
