Divisional administration Kashmir has ordered for conducting fire audit of all the private coaching centres and schools functioning across Valley including 150 in the summer capital.
The move comes a day after fire engulfed the four-storeybuilding housing a coaching centre at the third floor, in Sarthana area ofSurat in Gujarat. The deadly blaze left 20 students dead due to suffocation orfalling off the windows in an attempt to escape fire.
The incident set alarm bells ringing for the J&Kgovernment about the safety of the students opting for coaching in the privatecoaching centres which has witnessed a mushrooming growth over the years inValley.
Meanwhile, the divisional commissioner Kashmir, Baseer AhmadKhan said he has ordered to conduct the fire safety audit of all the coachingcentres and private schools functioning in valley.
“The concerned deputy commissioners and the officials in thedirectorate of school education Kashmir have been directed to submit the reportwithin three days,” Baseer Khan said.
There are around 550 private coaching centres in Kashmirincluding 150 in Srinagar alone and as many as 60,000 students opt for coachingin these institutes every year.
Also, there are over 2700 private schools functioning inValley with an aggregate student population of more than six lakh.
The recent fire incident has raised concern about the safetyof these students visiting these coaching centres and private schools. “Oncethe report is submitted by DCs and education department, further action willfollow accordingly,” divisional commissioner said.
While the fire safety audit has been ordered for privateschools and coaching centres, the condition in government schools is grimwherein the majority of the students are put to risk due to unsafe structures.
“A fire safety audit of government schools was conducted in2016 when school buildings were torched by arsonista. Adequate arrangementswere put in place to avoid burning incidents,” Khan said.
In 2016, 32 school buildings were set on fire after whichthe J&K High Court directed the Education Department to put in place allsafety measure to safeguard the school buildings. Around 2939 fireextinguishers were installed in various schools.
The department had informed the high Court that water tanks,water bucket with sand deposits and sand iron buckets were placed in schoolswhich will be put in use in case of any untoward incident.
“These arrangements are in place in many of these governmentschools but I have told them to conduct a fire safety audit of governmentschools as well,” Baseer Khan said.
As per norms, the private schools and coaching centres aregiven registration by the education department after checking all thecredential including the NoC from the fire and emergency department. Thefacilities are reviewed after five years by the department.
“It is in the SRO that schools and coaching centres shouldhave fire safety measures in place. But still we have reiterated the circularinstructions to them regarding the same,” director school education Kashmir(DSEK) Muhammad Younis Malik said.