Student volunteers from nearby colleges were among the first to reach the site of the five-storey building collapse in Satya Niketan on Sunday afternoon, clearing debris and helping make way for rescue machinery, according to locals. 

“The NSUI students were the first ones to reach. I saw them working very aggressively, removing debris with their bare hands, carrying huge blocks of cement,” said Mahender Singh, a resident who runs a sports products company. 

“I first heard a massive sound but ignored it, thinking someone must have had loud music on. But then someone said a building had collapsed and I rushed to the site,” he added. 

Around 2.30 p.m., personnel from the Delhi Fire Service and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had begun rescue operations, but earthmovers had yet to reach the site and the public was still gathered in the area, residents said. The call about the collapse had been made around 1.30 p.m. 

Student volunteers and police personnel dispersed the crowd and formed a human chain along the road to make way for the earthmovers. Before the machines arrived, the volunteers removed chunks of brick, mud and stone, along with damaged vehicles, from the area. They also opened access to a nearby MCD park so that debris could be dumped there. 

One student climbed onto an earthmover and tied up dangling wires to clear its passage to the collapse site. 

A video showing a student trapped under the debris was also circulated among student groups. 

“A first-year B.Com. student, Aditya, from Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma (ARSD) College made a video of another student being trapped under the debris. While Aditya was safely rescued, the student seen trapped in the video could not be saved,” said Vansh Rajput, another student from the college. 

Students living in nearby paying guest (PG) accommodations and hostels were evacuated and provided food and shelter at Sri Venkateswara College and ARSD. 

Students were also evacuated from a girls’ PG adjacent to the collapsed building after it suffered structural damage. 

“My daughter lives in a nearby PG. She just finished her graduation from Venkateswara College. At the time of the collapse, I was just seconds away from the site. I rushed to my daughter’s PG,” said Jonali Boradas, who had come from Assam to visit her children. 

Mr. Singh also alleged that unauthorised construction was widespread in the area. “The entire area is full of illegal construction. The building had walls with just four inches thickness and no pillars for support. A year ago, another building had collapsed in the area,” he said. 

The collapse also prompted concerns over the safety and facilities available at private student accommodations in the area. 

Manish Sharma, national in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress, said, “As private student accommodations accumulate in the city, governments should look at what facilities they are providing to students. When we think of larger education reforms, these issues form part of it. What is it that we are offering the youth?” 

New Delhi:

With several government teachers enlisted by the Election Commission as Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, school authorities have been pushed into reworking timetables to tackle the staff shortage. 

In several schools, a single teacher is being assigned to manage two classes. On other occasions, students are being sent to the library or sports ground in the absence of teachers in classrooms. 

Principals who are struggling to make these arrangements have expressed concerns over the disruption of regular classes, especially ahead of the mid-term exams in September. 

Teachers who have been appointed as BLOs are also finding themselves stretched trying to manage both school and SIR duties, with work pouring into night hours. 

Earlier in the week, the Government Schools Teachers’ Association (GSTA) flagged the issue of academic loss in a notice to Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood. In his letter, Ajay Veer Yadav, GSTA general secretary, said, “A substantial number of trained teachers have been deployed as BLOs and BLO supervisors for the SIR exercise. Consequently, the absence of thousands of teachers from schools is likely to adversely impact the education of lakhs of students. Such academic loss cannot be adequately compensated at a later stage.”

Around 13,000 BLOs have been deployed on ground, which include government school teachers, anganwadi workers and ASHA workers. According to the official orders deploying them on BLO duty, they will be required “full-time until October or the completion of the SIR process, whichever is earlier”. The notices also asked respective school heads or managers to make arrangements to relieve them of their duties for the said period.  

‘Impacting studies’
However, for a school principal who has had to spare a majority of his senior teachers for BLO duty, putting in place an alternative arrangement hasn’t been easy. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the principal said, “Even some class teachers have been assigned BLO duty. So, who will teach then? Some teachers have been given two registers, and they have to take care of multiple classes.” 

But this comes with challenges too, the principal said. “A teacher might have another class. So, we have to merge some classes or send some students to the playground. But this will impact their studies and it will be difficult to complete the syllabus before the mid-term examinations in September.” 

Another school principal said, “We can’t leave the students alone. So during free periods, they are being engaged in the library or with sports. We have to alter timetables because the teachers will be away for a much longer time than they usually are for election or other duties.” 

‘Double the work’

A senior government school teacher, who has been engaged in BLO duty, said, “In my school, the principal has assigned my school duties to another teacher for the time being. But unfortunately, substitute teachers do not put in the same amount of effort because it is additional work for them, too.”

However, not all schools can afford to spare teachers exclusively for SIR duty. The problem was starker in schools from where more teachers have been deployed for BLO work. A teacher, who along with one more colleague from the school has been assigned SIR duty, said his principal has relieved him of his school duties completely. But in schools from where more teachers have been deployed as BLOs, they are trying to manage both the duties. 

Another teacher, who has been going to school in the morning and then heading out on SIR duty said, “There is pressure from both sides. I am going to school and then stepping out to go for door-to-door BLO work. There are no fixed hours as such, and we are working all day, and into the night.” 

Similarly, substitutes are taking care of the children at anganwadi centres. “I am fulfilling both my duties at the same time, though I’m managing some of it on my phone. My work starts early in the morning and continues till late at night,” said an anganwadi worker.