Students have to climb a risky bamboo ladder to get to their classrooms on the upper floor of the newly constructed Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya in Belgada village of Kedli panchayat in Huntergunj, Chatra.

The building was constructed without stairs and never properly finished.

A two-member team has been formed to inquire and report on the situation.

Records also stated that the government school’s principal, Sushil Singh, was seen beating two youths mercilessly in a video for their involvement in a mobile phone theft.

Singh, who was secretary and principal of this school before he was transferred last year, had constructed the building with Rs 10.21 lakh.

Education department officials said the entire fund has been used to construct this building, which is clearly incomplete. Neither has the plastering been done nor any windows fitted. There are no stairs to go up to the first floor.

Parents, on condition of anonymity, said that Singh had threatened them against speaking out when he was posted there. Hence, no one had dared to raise their voice against him even after his transfer.

So, 150 students of the school regularly use a bamboo ladder to reach classrooms on the first floor. “Once schools reopen, students will have to follow this practice again,” said a parent.

One Naveen Singh, an engineer who was given the task to look after the construction work, had resigned from the job last year.

Assistant engineer Shyam Narayan Singh of the Jharkhand Education Project Council who visited the school to inquire about the misuse of funds admitted that the work was substandard. He expressed his surprise on finding that stairs were missing.

“I am waiting for a report from my team and the guilty will not be spared,” said Chatra district education officer Jitendra Kumar Sinha. He promised to check whether any funds were left in the school account so as to use them to build stairs for the building.