Several cars dented as boundary wall of school in Delhi's Saket crumbles

NEW DELHI: The residents of Saket in south Delhi woke up to bad news on Wednesday morning. At 5.30am, the wall of Apeejay School in J Block collapsed in the rain and severely damaged seven cars.
Businessman Manish Chawla had his two of his cars affected, a Santro and an Innova Crest he had bought just six months ago. “After getting the information from my brother, we dialled 100 and sought assistance.We have been parking in this space for two decades,” said Chawla. He alleged that the wall wasn’t properly built and that there were no pillars, only bricks, for a wall of its size.
A Renault belonging to Shreya Agnihotri too was ravaged. “It is not as if an earthquake caused the wall to fall,” she said. “The construction must be faulty. Fortunately, the children were not in school when this happened.”
An Etios and Honda City were covered with bricks and iron grills, while a Hector Hybrid was maimed in the front. A resident whose Swift Desire is damaged beyond redemption rued she had decided to park there. “I never did parked here, but the space I usually used was not available yesterday,” she said. “On the other side of the wall, you can see that it has been casually built.”
The car owners are unsure if they can claim insurance and felt the school should at least pay the differential amount, taking responsibility for the incident. Some of them also registered a complaint with police. Fire service and Delhi Disaster Management Authority officials visited the site.
School representative Pratik Singh claimed the wall was raised “as per the directive of the government”. He said, “It was built to the specified height of 8ft to deter terrorists or miscreants.”
Later, the school said in a statement, “Due to extremely heavy rains across the city, a small part of our boundary wall broke down in an area where vehicles are not meant to be parked. There are no injuries. We regret that since the school is in Covid-19 mode, an immediate response was not possible. We are working with the authorities to rebuild the wall. Our focus is to first remove the debris and ensure the safety of everyone.”