The Hindu : Front Page : Portion of university hostel collapses

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Sunday, Sep 27, 2009
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Portion of university hostel collapses

Special Correspondent

Photo: C. Ratheesh kumar

Pile of rubble: Debris being cleared from the premises of the hostel at Karyavattom, which collapsed on Saturday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The toilet block of the women’s hostel building on the Karyavattom campus of the University of Kerala collapsed on Saturday afternoon, triggering panic.

A postgraduate student, Uma Maheswari from Munnar, was slightly injured. Her hostel mates believe that she was caught in the hustle when they rushed out on hearing a deafening noise at 2.30 p.m., suspecting an earthquake.

Only 32 students, mostly from Wayanad, Kannur, Kozhikode, were in the rooms. Many lives would have been lost if more of the 220 hostellers had stayed back without going home for the Puja holidays.

The students rushed out to the portico, looking for the source of the noise. Some of them, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the cleaning staff had cautioned them against using the bathrooms in the three-storey building, which is four decades old.

The staff had told them that the plastering on the roof and walls was coming off and the toilets were unsafe. The drainage pipe had been leaking for a while and the walls were damp.

The university authorities had allegedly ignored their repeated requests for maintenance of the hostel buildings, and only minor repairs, such as replacement of taps and electrical fittings, used to be done. When the occupants complained about the pitiable condition of rooms and toilets, the authorities assured them that the buildings would be spruced up before the science congress to be held on the campus in January. They had promised civil works estimated at Rs.10 crore by December.

Fire and Rescue Services personnel started removing the debris. They locked the rooms after removing the possessions of the students in the evening. The students said they were scared of occupying the rooms and the authorities should take steps to move them to safer rooms at the earliest.

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