Odisha school used as morgue to house victim bodies demolished

BHUBANESWAR: Authorities on Friday started demolishing Bahanaga high school that was used as a temporary mortuary to keep some 250 bodies of the June 2 three-train crash victims, before they were shifted to a morgue following appeals from spooked kids, teachers and local residents.
The decision to raze a part of the school building was taken by the school management committee (SMC).

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik also asked Balasore district collector to submit a detailed project on construction of a new school building as a model school under the 5T initiative of the government. A team of senior officers, including the chief secretary interacted with parents, teachers and students of the school and asked their opinion about the school building.
"The classrooms in which bodies were kept have blood stains, so if we could get new classrooms then we could study in a stress-free atmosphere without any fear," said a student at the school, while interacting with the officers through video conferencing. They also requested for a playground and a cycle stand in the school premises.
The SMC members said limbless and headless bodies recovered from the mangled coaches of the two passenger trains immediately after the train accident were kept in the six classrooms and a dining hall of the school located 500 meters away from the accident site. The horrific scene of bodies lying all around, and the cries of their relatives who came to identify the bodies affected the residents of the small town of Bahanaga.
Two days after the accident, the bodies were transferred to different hospitals in Bhubaneswar.
Balasore district collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde said the school has three buildings, one of which has been recently refurbished under Mo School Abhiyan, the other building has been transformed under the 5T High School Transformation scheme. The third building with an asbestos roof has additional classrooms and a dining hall, where bodies were kept, will be demolished.
"The state government has asked for a plan and we will send it immediately. There was nothing like ghosts or something, but the concern was blood stains at the classrooms where students used to dine. They are not comfortable with sitting in the blood-stained classrooms," said Shinde. The new building will have a concrete roof, classrooms, playground, and a boundary wall. "After watching the news on Thursday, the chief minister asked us to transform the schools as one of the best schools of Odisha. We have not yet started the transformation of elementary schools with class 1 to 7, but this will be the first school under primary school transformation. We will make this school a model school where children will not fear, rather express their eagerness to come to," said V K Pandian, 5T secretary.