Fire damages major portion of Dowhill Girls’ School in Kurseong

A hill campus of Presidency University was supposed to be constructed here and recently the state government had sanctioned Rs 1 crore for infrastructure development of the school.

The exact reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained, but conspiracy against Trinamool Congress might have been one of the reasons behind the fire. 

It may be mentioned that despite being opposed by the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that a campus of Presidency University will come up in this school. Instead, the Morcha had demanded a Central University in the Hills.  

   

On Thursday night, local people got smell of something burning. They found smoke billowing out of the windows of the primary section of the school. Fire tenders from Kurseong and Darjeeling were pressed into service and they took more than 6 hours to douse the flames.  

Probe has been initiated to ascertain the exact cause behind the fire. But it has been ascertained that there was no one in the school when the incident took place. 

Recently, the school authorities had floated a tender of various works worth Rs 68 lakh to develop infrastructure of the school. Vice-president of the Town Branch of Trinamool Congress in Kurseong Arif Khan had bagged the order. 

He said: “I heard that electric short circuit had led to the fire. But the possibility of conspiracy cannot be ruled out. Around 90 per cent of the work that worth Rs 68 lakh was complete. I cannot rule out the possibility of setting the school on fire for defaming us.”