Srinagar: At Ashai Kocha, a narrow elevated lane few hundred metres from Fateh Kadal in Srinagar, dozens of students and staff at a government school are apprehending a nearby dilapidated building to collapse, anytime.
Till recently, they were taking classes from the same building – the 19th century house of renowned educationist Ghulam Ahmad Ashai, which is under a conservation plan of School Education Department.
Few years ago, the department listed the Ashai House, along with the residence of Moulana Anwar Shah Kashmiri’s residence in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, for conservation, given their heritage and historic importance.
In November 2017, at least three consultants were hired to help and guide in the conservation plan, but two years on, apart from a few visits by the consultants and officials to the Fateh Kadal School, the building has gone from bad to worse.
The SED’s failure to either carry out the proposed retrofitting of the building “or entirely raze it” has put life and property at risk.
A staffer at the Government Girls’ Secondary School Fateh Kadal- which runs from the premises- said the building was a risk during earthquakes.
“Although we have shifted to the new building, but the old building is too risky to be nearby,” she said.
Any eventuality cannot be ruled out, she added. Other teachers at the school, who talked to Kashmir Reader, shared the fears.
The proposed conservation of the school by the department, they alleged, did not move beyond official visits to the school building.
The teachers feel that the department’s failure to repair the building or raze it had rendered the otherwise rich equipment at the school “useless”.
“Otherwise, we have nine computers, which the students can benefit from, but it is lying idle because we don’t have enough space,” a teacher said adding the high-end Science laboratory at the school was affected due to lack of space.
With the dilapidated building occupying majority of the area, the school administration has been forced to erect makeshift sheds besides partitioning the class rooms for more space for students and equipment.
“Could they raze the old building, there is ample space to make way for a new building,” a teacher said.
Secretary School Education Sarita Chauhan declined repeated calls by this reporter.
An official at the Directorate of School Education Kashmir said that renovation of the school could not move beyond hiring of consultants with the Administrative Department yet to release funds for the purpose.
An official at Centre for Urbanisation, Buildings and Environment (CUBE), Chennai-one of the three consultants hired by the SED for the “conservation, retrofitting and upgrading” of the Fateh Kadal School and Allama Anwar Shah Kashmiri’s residence told Kashmir Reader over phone that they had carried out the site visit and submitted a report to the department for necessary action.
Besides CUBE Chennai, the SED had on November 22, 2017 also ordered hiring of Project Design consultant ‘CRCI Pvt Ltd’ and ‘ARASTA’ as the Project Coordinator.
NIT Srinagar and IIT Madras also were meant to carry out research and investigation, training and capacity building, development of guidelines for conservation and retrofitting for vernacular architecture of Kashmir.
The SED was also supposed to approach Planning, Dev elopement and Monitoring Department for providing funds under Capex Budget and Revenue Department for acquisition of ancestral house of Allama Anwar Shah Kashmiri in Kupwara.

Irshad Khan