A ceiling fan in a Jamshedpur Worker’s College classroom came crashing down on Tuesday near two undergraduate commerce students answering their fourth semester exams.

The Kolhan University constituent college had received Rs 75 lakh from the state higher and technical education for renovation some 18 months ago, and Rs 2 crore from the Centre’s Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (Rusa) around two years back, students told this reporter, alleging that had the renovation been done properly, this accident would never have happened.

The two injured students, Anjali Kumari and Jyoti Sharma, were from Jamshedpur Co-operative College, Bistupur, but had been answering their semester exams at the ‘away centre’ when the moving fan fell around 12.30pm.

If the fan directly fell on the girls, the injuries would have been more severe. However, Anjali, a resident of Adityapur, suffered a deep cut on her head from the impact of the blade of the fan. Jyoti got cuts on her face.

Other students rushed the girls to Gurunanak Nursing Home, around 2km from the college, where Anjali got four stitches on her head. Jyoti was released with first-aid.

Both the girls were in shock, the other students told this reporter.

“The fan, which was very old, was whirring slowly with a lot of noise at room 2, fell with a thud when examinees had almost completed answering their commerce paper. We’d started at 10am,” said a student. “We were shocked to see the girls bleeding, but they had a lucky escape. Their injuries could have been bad had the bulky fan fallen on their heads,” said Amita Sharma, another student.

Students of Jamshedpur Worker’s College admitted their building and electrical appliances, especially ceiling fans, were in a bad state.

“The college, a constituent unit of Kolhan University, received Rs 75 lakh from the state, and Rs 2 crore from Rusa for college development. Where did the money go?”

Another student said repairs were done twice in the past two years. “A ceiling fan falling down on students proves the kind of work done,” said Rajesh Mahto, a final-year BCom student of Jamshedpur Worker’s College.

“We demand a probe into the incident. The university as well as the department of higher and technical education should look into the matter. We demand corrupt contractors be blacklisted,” more than one student said.

Repeated calls to principal A.K. Mehta proved futile. He seemed to have switched off his phone.