The Pioneer 25.04.2013
212 schools get fire safety papers
South Delhi Municipal Corporation has managed to get fire safety
clearance for over 200 school buildings. So far these schools were
functioning without mandatory safety clearance. The SDMC has 588 primary
schools while the number of school buildings is 270.
Schools operate in both morning and evening shifts. The officials said
the fire department gave fire safety clearance to 212 schools after
inspection of all the schools.
“The corporation had applied for fire clearance few months back after
putting in place the infrastructure required as per the parameters of
the fire department. The fire department officials conducted an
inspection of all the schools buildings. The fire safety clearance has
been granted to 212 schools buildings,” said spokesperson of South
Corporation, Mukesh Yadav. The corporation officials said they would
apply for safety clearance for other 58 schools buildings after
introducing the changes as advised by the fire department. As per norms,
the school building need to have provision of two exit doors for
evacuation, the stairs need to be widened in some schools, the
classrooms need to be amply ventilated to prevent choking of occupants
during
fire, apart from installation of minimum number of fire extinguishers
in all the schools. The officials said the civic body has increased the
budget of fire safety to `10 crore during the current financial year
(2013-14) from `8.4 crore Budget during the last fiscal.