Odisha Train Accident: The whole area around the Bahanaga High School was gripped with fear when it was turned into a morgue to keep the bodies of the Odisha Train Tragedy that claimed 288 lives. It has sent waves of horror among locals. Students of the school were scared to return to their classes in the building which was turned into a temporary morgue. Parts of the school building in Balasore are being razed. This comes after the parents expressed their reluctance in sending their children to school.
A teacher says, "The collector visited the building yesterday. There is nothing to be scared of & there are no spirits here. It's just superstition. Still, this will be taken down and a new building will be built."
Shrouded bodies were carted to this school
Soon after the crash on June 2, shrouded bodies were carted to this 65-year-old school building in Odisha's Bahanaga. Such is the reluctance of the young students and their parents to come back to a building associated with tragic mass death that the school management committee (SMC) had pleaded with the state government to demolish the building as it is old. Following the request, the administration ordered to demolish the school.
Bahanaga High School Headmistress Pramila Swain asserted that “Younger students are scared." Balasore district collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde, who visited the school on Thursday, said, “I have met members of the school management committee, headmistress, other staff and local people. They want to demolish the old building and renovate it so that children do have any fear or apprehension to attend classes.”
Children were affected
A member of the SMC told the district collector that after watching the bodies lying in the school building on TV, “The children are affected and are reluctant to come to school after it reopens on June 16”.
The bodies have been shifted to Bhubaneswar and the school campus has been sanitised and cleaned, the students and the guardians are scared and in a state of panic.
“It is difficult to forget that so many bodies were kept in our school building,” said a student. “Our children are refusing to go to school and their mothers are not keen to send them to the educational institute now,” Sujit Sahoo, a guardian, said.
