SAGAR: Nine children were killed and two others injured after a wall of a dilapidated house collapsed in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district on Sunday, a senior official said. The incident occurred between 8.30 am and 9 am near the campus of a temple during a religious programme in the Shahpur village of Rehli Assembly seat, as per the official.
This is not the first such incident in the state in recent time. Only on Saturday, a wall collapse had killed four kids in Rewa district. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has suspended the chief municipal officer (CMO) of Shahpur Nagar Panchayat and a sub-engineer. He also directed civil bodies across the state to identify dilapidated buildings and take action.
Nine children, aged 10 to 15 years, were killed and two injured in the wall collapse incident at a religious programme in Shahpur, Sagar Divisional Commissioner Virendra Singh Rawat said. Senior officials, including the district collector, had reached the spot, he added.
CM Yadav expressed grief over the incident and announced assistance of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of each of the deceased. A programme of “Parthiv Shivling Nirman” (making Shivling out of clay) was going on under a tent near the dilapidated house, and a wall collapsed and fell on the tent, local BJP MLA and former minister Gopal Bhargava told the media.
The children got crushed under the tent and debris, he said. Several of the deceased were the only child of their parents, Bhargava added.
District Collector Deepak Arya said the children were sitting under a tent near a temple, and the house wall collapsed due to rain. Two children died on the spot, while seven others succumbed on the way to hospital or on reaching the medical facility, he added.
Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari also expressed grief over the incident. Former CM and Congress leader Kamal Nath said the administration needed to identify weak buildings and walls to prevent such incidents, he said.