Crumbling schools in earthquake-prone Himalayas
The afternoon of May 12 will haunt memories of parents of school going children of Sichuan Province in China for years. Thousands of children perished under the collapsed buildings of their schools as an earthquake measuring more than 7.9 on the Richter scale jolted the province. Photographs of the collapsed school buildings bear ample testimony to their shoddy construction.
Sichuan is not the only earthquake-prone area where safety has been given a short shrift in the construction of school buildings. In Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, parents of more than 17,000 school children are still grieving over loss of their dear ones in the 2005 earthquake.
Caution is thrown to the winds while constructing school buildings in earthquake-prone areas in India as well. In earthquake prone Uttarakhand, no educational institution can withstand tremors of high-magnitude.This is a serious lacuna in a state where education is accorded high priority