Odisha train accident: Balasore school where dead bodies were kept demolished

The school in Balasore that was turned into a temporary morgue after the triple train collision in Odisha on June 2 has been demolished.

Students of Bahanaga High School in Odisha were scared to return to their classes in the building where the dead bodies of the victims were kept.

Such was 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 had pleaded with the state government to demolish the 65-year-old building.

“Younger students are scared,” admitted Bahanaga High School Headmistress Pramila Swain, adding that the school had planned to “conduct spiritual programmes and follow some rituals to help them overcome their fears.” She said some senior students and NCC cadets from the school had even joined the rescue work.

Though 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.

The SMC had initially allowed only three classrooms for the purpose. Later the district administration used the open hall of the school for keeping the bodies for identification.

(with PTI inputs)