Five students were seriously injured and 50 others narrowly escaped while a roof of the Dharanidhar (DD) Autonomous College here collapsed at around 12 noon on Friday near the college office building.
The incident occurred when hundreds of students had gathered to receive their stipend. An upstairs building of the college, which was under construction by the PWD at an estimated cost of Rs 3 crore since March, suddenly collapsed when the students were waiting below the srructure.
Injured students Bhuban Bordia, Debashis Maharana, Sangita Majhi, Jemamani Sardar and Sabita Bhadra were admitted to the Keonjhar District Headquarters Hospital here. The college remained closed for the rest of the day due to student unrest while the PWD officials fled from their office fearing any attack on them.
“The quality of the construction work was very poor, for which the incident might have occurred,” commented local MlA Subarna Naik, an engineer himself, who visited the spot and demanded immediate arrest of the erring contractor.
Hundreds of students led by the College Union president staged agitation in the campus demanding compensation for the victims, suspension of the supervising engineers and arrest of the contractor. Members of the Students’ Congress gheraoed the district Collector’s office demanding an inquiry into the incident and resignation of the Higher Education Minister.
The incident has ignited activities among the different political parties ahead of the municipality polls on September 19.