Raj govt identified crumbling schools, sat on repair funds

A day after seven students were killed when a portion of a school building collapsed in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan, state education minister Madan Dilawar on Saturday said that repairing all school building in the state was not possible as he could not pay for it from his “own pocket”.

- Senjuti Sengupta and Suresh Foujdar

Dilawar also sought to accept responsibility for the incident, and said that appropriate action will be taken after a probe is conducted. “The officials argue that the school was repaired from the fund of ₹21 lakh, released by the Dang Development Board. This incident happened due to the collapse of the room wall. I take accountability for the incident that happened in Jhalawar,” he said.

Separately, an internal report of the state education department has revealed that at least 2,710 school buildings in Rajasthan have been found to be in a dilapidated condition since 2024, but the budget allocated for repairs —₹254 crores— has not been released.