Portion of old building collapses at Kerala school amid heavy rain, tragedy averted as it was holiday
The building, which once served as a kitchen, was no longer in use as it has been in a dilapidated state for long. Local residents have been demanding its demolition since it stood on the school campus. Over 200 students from the neighbourhood attend the school.
The recent incident in which 13-year-old M. Midhun was electrocuted by a low-hanging electric wire over the cycle shed of the Thevalakkara Boys High School in Kollam district has drawn attention to how oversight left school students vulnerable.
'The building is no longer in use and has been marked out for demolition. A contractor has been assigned to do the work. He will demolish the building once he finishes the maintenance works of two other schools that under way. The building has been locked, with no access to either students or teachers. It has not been issued fitness certificate either,' said Rema Santhosh, Thripunithura municipal chairperson.
A local resident said he had made a Facebook post on the threat posed by the old building on August 23, 2024. 'However, the authorities showed scant regard. The protruding iron rods of the old structure still poses a threat,' he said.
It is also pointed out that the old building continues to pose a threat to an aganwadi and a lower primary school in the immediate vicinity.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Tennessee tragedy: Infant abandoned in front yard; four bodies found at nearby home, probe under way
Authorities in Tennessee are looking into a potential connection between two disturbing incidents after a seven-month-old baby was found abandoned in a car seat, and four people were discovered dead in a nearby home. According to a statement from the Dyer County Sheriff's Office, deputies were called out just after 3:00 pm on July 29 following reports of an infant left alone outdoors. The child was spotted in a car seat in the front yard of a residence near Tigrett, a community in western Tennessee near the Arkansas border. The homeowner, who is not the child's parent, contacted law enforcement after seeing the baby, local station WMC-TV reported. In a Facebook update, the Dyer County Sheriff's Office said, 'a dark-colored minivan or a white mid-size SUV was reported to have dropped off' the infant. Later the same day, the Dyer County Sheriff's Office revealed they were also working with the Lake County Sheriff's Office to investigate a crime scene in Lake County, where four people were found dead. The identities of the infant and the four deceased individuals have not yet been released. However, officials say the two cases may be connected, USA Today reported. 'This is a deeply saddening day for our community. We are committed to uncovering the truth and ensuring justice is served,' Sheriff Jeff Box said in a statement. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI are now involved in the ongoing investigation.
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Time of India
Bengaluru woman spread radical content for AQIS: Gujarat ATS
Ahmedabad: A day after the Gujarat ATS arrested a 30-year-old woman from Bengaluru, Shama Parveen Ansari, the agency officers on Wednesday claimed that she operated social media accounts used to spread 'al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent' (AQIS) propaganda and incite jihad. Officials said Parveen was a key digital propagandist who disseminated radical content calling for armed revolt and religious violence. Shama Parveen was arrested from her rented house in RT Nagar, Bengaluru, on Tuesday. According to Gujarat ATS, she operated key social media handles disseminating jihadi content. "This arrest is a part of an ongoing investigation into AQIS-linked radicalisation of Indian youth. We have evidence that Shama Parveen was the user behind Instagram account 'strangers_nation02' and Facebook pages 'Strangers of The Nation' and 'Strangers of The Nation 2'," said Gujarat ATS in an official statement. The agency added, "These accounts were used to post videos and speeches of AQIS leader Maulana Asim Umar and Imam Anwar al Awlaki calling for armed revolution against the Indian govt, promotion of Ghazwa-e-Hind, and inciting violence against non-believers." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Explore the 18 Most Stunning Hotel Pools Only the Rich and Famous Get to Swim In! Click Here Undo "She also circulated video messages of Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid, Lahore, calling upon Muslims to wage armed struggle against the Indian state," ATS said. You Can Also Check: Ahmedabad AQI | Weather in Ahmedabad | Bank Holidays in Ahmedabad | Public Holidays in Ahmedabad Earlier, on July 22, Gujarat ATS arrested four men from Ahmedabad, Modasa, Delhi, and Noida for promoting similar content. The agency said, "We digitally tracked the origin of this propaganda to the accounts operated by Shama Parveen." "She was apprehended with the help of central agencies and local police. Her mobile phone was seized and examined, and prima-facie evidence confirmed her role in radicalisation," said ATS. "Parveen has been brought to Gujarat on a transit remand. A case under Sections 13, 18, 38, and 39 of the UAPA has been registered against her. Her electronic devices and communication records are under forensic analysis," the agency added. Gujarat ATS concluded, "The woman established digital links with foreign entities, including those in Pakistan. Her involvement in recruiting or influencing others is part of a broader probe now underway. " Shama Parveen sent to police remand for 14 days Ahmedabad: Shama Parveen Ansari, who was arrested from Bengaluru allegedly for spreading al-Qaida ideology through social media, was sent to 14-day custodial interrogation on Wednesday. Ansari was produced before judicial magistrate of first-class, M D Virani, at Ahmedabad rural court after being arrested by the ATS. Seeking her remand for 14 days, assistant public prosecutor Sandeep Gautam submitted before the court that she had been operating an Instagram ID since 2022, several Facebook pages, and was accused of uploading jihadist speeches by al-Qaida in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) leader Maulana Assim Umar. The content called for armed revolution against the govt of India, Ghazwa-e-Hind, religious hatred, and terrorist attacks. Ansari was accused of posting jihadi speeches by AQIS's Imam Anwar al Awlaki and Lahore's Lal Masjid's Maulana Abdul Aziz on these social media accounts, thereby inciting Indian Muslim youth to carry out violence on religious grounds against members of other religions, the ATS stated in its remand application. The probe agency wanted to question her in custody also to know more about the earlier arrest of other alleged AQIS supporters. Fardeen Shaikh, a resident of Ahmedabad; Mohd Faiq, a resident of Delhi; Zeeshan Ali, a resident of Noida in Uttar Pradesh; and Saifullah Qureshi, a resident of Modasa in Gujarat's Aravalli district, were arrested last week on allegations of being involved in propagating AQIS ideology. They were booked under the provisions of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
NDTV
13 hours ago
- NDTV
Government Deportations Leave Families Of Bengali Migrants In Deep Distress
Murarai: Sixty-something Bhodu Sheikh sat on the porch of his ramshackle hut in Dorjee Para, a settlement tucked away in one corner of Paikar village in the Muslim-majority Murarai assembly constituency of West Bengal's Birbhum district, with a blank look in his eyes. More than the rickety body that shrank further during the cough bouts from his debilitating asthma, Bhodu's overt signs of resignation to fate seemed expedited by his total ignorance of the current whereabouts of his daughter, Sonali, and five-year-old grandson Sabir, who along with his son-in law, Danesh, were picked up by Delhi Police from the Bengali Basti in Sector 26, Rohini, last month and pushed to Bangladesh. They were deported following orders from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), Delhi police had said. The family, Bhodu said, lived in Delhi for nearly 25 years, where Danesh worked as a ragpicker and waste collector. They were targeted, among hundreds of other basti dwellers, because they spoke Bangla and were most vulnerable to being branded as 'Bangladeshis', he alleged. "I was born in this village," Bhodu claimed, "and so was my daughter. My grandson was born in Delhi". Sonali's brother, Suraj Sheikh, alleged that they paid a lawyer Rs 30,000 after he promised to get his sister and her family released, only to learn later that they had been sent to Bangladesh. "We came home for the Qurbani Eid festival, but now we are too frightened to go back," Suraj's wife, Seema, chipped in. To support his claim that his sister is now in some unknown location in Bangladesh, Suraj played a Facebook video, the authenticity of which PTI could not independently verify, where Sonali and her family, along with three others, and plead with folded hands for help. About a kilometre away in Fakirpara in Paikar, a fledgling rural hamlet that comes alive every Tuesday on account of a cattle trading market that sits there, 30-year-old Amir Khan had a similar story to share. Amir alleged that his sister, Sweety Bibi and her two sons, Qurban Sheikh (16) and Imam Dewan (6), were detained by Delhi Police from the same neighbourhood as Sonali and then deported to Bangladesh on June 27. "My sister worked as a domestic help in that area. She was living in Delhi since she was 12 and wasn't at home when police raided, so they took her elder son instead. When she reached the police station looking for Qurban, they arrested her as well. She furnished Aadhaar cards as proof of their permanent address in Birbhum, which the police dismissed," Amir said. "She had Qurban's birth certificate at home but she couldn't produce it since a devastating fire at the shanty barely days before the raids began had destroyed documents. We, however, have Imam's document here," Amir said, holding up the state health department certificate, which states that Imam was born at the Murarai rural hospital on January 1, 2020. In the purported Facebook video, Sweety alleged that the police beat them up and coerced them into medical examinations and biometric tests before transporting them to Bangladesh. "We haven't heard from them for nearly a month now. We have no idea where they are and how they are living through this in an unknown land," said Mahida Bibi, Sweety's mother, her voice trembling. She claimed Sweety was born at the very house where she stood that once belonged to her grandmother. "We will fight against this till the very end, both politically and legally," said Samirul Islam, TMC Rajya Sabha MP and a local from Murarai, while marching with his party supremo Mamata Banerjee in her 'Bhasha Andolan' protest rally in Bolpur against alleged 'linguistic terror' unleashed on migrant Bengalis by the saffron camp. In a post on X, Islam published photographs of what he claimed were land documents of Sweety's maternal and paternal grandfathers and Sonali's paternal great grandfather - all dated between 1950s, to the 1970s. "Anyone in the BJP who can actually read them will understand that these women are far more Indian than the loudmouth BJP touts slandering them," he wrote. The IIT, Delhi postgraduate informed PTI that he awaited results of the legal battles on the issue pending before the high courts of Calcutta and Delhi. "We will move the Supreme Court, if required," he said. Islam maintained that not just Muslims, but migrant backward class Hindus, like the Namashudra Matuas and Rajbanshis, are also being subjected to similar harassments of detention and deportation. In the Jharkhand bordering village of Kahinagar, Ataul Sheikh (16) and his neighbour, Marjan (17), narrated their ordeal of being held at an Odisha government detention camp earlier this month. "We had gone to Jharsuguda to work as masons in a construction project. On July 8, police came knocking on our doors at 1 a.m. We were first taken to the local police station and then moved to a room at a local college hostel where I was confined for four days," said Ataul, adding that his brother Satabul, too, was held. Marjan, who was detained for two additional days, claimed he saw some 250 migrant workers, all Bengali-speaking, locked up in the camp. "Do only Bangladeshis speak Bengali? Doesn't a significant number of Indians speak that language?" asked Chandni Bibi, Marjan's sister-in law. "By that logic, every Bengali-speaking citizen in Kolkata should also be arrested. It seems we must learn to speak in English now," she quipped.
