PESHAWAR, Oct 4: The 300-plus students of the Balakot Government Degree College for Boys are still going through the trauma of last year’s devastating earthquake.

Many students find it difficult to forget the agony they all suffered on personal levels and start afresh even a year after the earthquake, which turned their college’s academic blocks and hostel into rubble.

The left-bank of river Kunha, sprawling over a vast area in the foothills in Balakot valley that once housed the educational institution now lies under piles of debris, damaged furniture, rusted cupboards, a mutilated official vehicle and half-collapsed walls.

The quake had destroyed more than 95 per cent of buildings in Balakot.

Almost a year has passed since the disaster struck the region but college’s rubble, which has not yet been removed by the authorities concerned.

Though a multinational firm had financed the setting up of a temporary facility in structures made with corrugated iron sheets and wood so that the academic session could continue, little help, according to official sources, came from the provincial or the federal government to run the facility.

“Except for a visit once by the secretary of higher education subsequently after the earthquake, no other senior official of the department or the provincial minister for education visited to inspect the temporary facility or see themselves the magnitude of destruction the college suffered,” a teacher at the Balakot degree college told this scribe few days back.

On its part, the provincial government, according to sources, is not inclined to rehabilitate the facility or reconstruct the buildings because of the federal government’s announced plan to establish a model town at Bakriyal, district Mansehra, in place of ruined Balakot, which, as per geological surveys conducted by teams of local and foreign experts, lies on fault lines.

Even though the provincial government has reconstructed temporary facility made with bricks and cement to house police station in the main Balakot bazaar, no attention has been paid to improve the temporary facility housing the degree college for boys.

Staff members of the college said that significant number of a collection of precious books had been lost because of heavy rains last summer which damaged college’s library presently housed in a room made with corrugated iron sheets.

“Rain water leaked into the library from the holes in the corrugated sheet roofing and several books were irreparably damaged,” said a teacher.

Similarly, according to him, one of the six computers donated to the college by Chinese Ambassador to Islamabad, has run out of order after developing a fault due to rain water.

However, in the absence of sufficient place to establish a proper computer lab for the students to benefit from from the donation, two computers are still lying packed on the floor in a corner of the library.

“Even no body from the education department bothered to remove the damaged vehicle or issued instructions to properly dispose of the damaged cupboards and furniture,” said an official.

While the provincial government, according to a staff member, had lent little support to run the temporary facility, the college’s administration is facing a tough task ahead to accommodate students from far flung areas in one big room that will serve as the hostel.

Other than a room made with corrugated iron sheets and wood, there are few tents which would be used to accommodate the boarders.

“Amidst freezing temperatures these tents and room would require proper heating in next winter for which the college does not have much resou rces or any contingency plan,” said an official source.

While academic session of the first and second years’ students started in September, degree course got underway from October 1, last, making the college’s administration to swing into action as classrooms, according to officials, were small in size to accommodate more than 30 students per class.

About the government’s inability to remove the rubble even after one year, a teacher said that soon after the last year’s earthquake, a private contractor had contacted the college’s principal for lifting the debris against Rs 200,000. However, the administration rejected the offer in the absence of a clear cut policy from the education department. Later, representatives of the UN System also approached the college’s administration for removing the rubble. But they were also not obliged, according to the college’s staff.