Heap of mud gushes out of school toilet near Metro site

Students of Dr Ambedkar Government Higher Secondary School, Egmore were in for a surprise on Wednesday morning when they saw mud on their playground that had gushed out of the newly-constructed girls’ toilet. Speaking to reporters, S Kanmani, headmistress of the school, said that she received a call from one of the teachers around 7 am who told her about what was happening. 

“I rushed to the school by 7.10 am and informed Public Works Department (PWD), city corporation, Chennai district chief educational officer and CMRL officials about the development. CMRL officials arrived and started clearing the mud away,” said the headmistress. Kanmani said that the school had about 150 students, including a few girls from Classes 6 to 12 and she had made alternative arrangements for a girls’ toilet. 

The school functioned as usual with students attending classes till afternoon, after which it was closed for the rest of the mud to be removed. Various officials from the School Education department, PWD, police, besides CMRL visited the school to oversee the cleaning process. The school headmistress said that there had been no damage to the school in the past due to CMRL’s work and CMRL officials had periodically inspected the school too. 

Chennai Central Constituency Member of Parliament (MP) S R Vijayakumar, who visited the school, said that he was told that with the Metro rail work progressing beneath the school the mud could have been an outcome of it, but the school building was safe. “I will speak to the Metro officials. The clearing of the mud on the campus has commenced already. We have taken all steps to ensure the students’ safety,” he said.