Deccan Herald                   25.04.2013

No fire clearance to 58 SDMC schools

Around 60 school buildings of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation are yet to get safety clearances from the fire department, thus endangering the students.

The South Corporation runs 588 primary schools from 270 buildings in morning and evening shifts. Sources in the corporation said while it managed to get no-objection certificates from the fire department for a majority of its buildings recently, at least 58 schools are yet to get the clearance.

“The corporation had applied for fire clearance a few months ago after putting in place the infrastructure required as per the parameters of the fire department. Officials conducted an inspection of all school buildings. They finally granted no-objection certificates to 212 buildings,” said a corporation official.

The officials said they would apply for safety clearance for the remaining buildings after introducing changes advised by the fire department. They, however, said some of the schools failed to get a clearance as they were built decades ago, hence did not meet some of the parameters, many of which were incorporated recently.

According to the norms, school buildings should have two exit doors. The stairs needed to be widened in some schools and classrooms amply ventilated to avoid suffocation in case of fire. Moreover, a minimum number of fire extinguishers were required to be installed in all schools.

Officials said the civic body has increased the budget for fire safety to Rs 10 crore during the current financial year (2013-14), Rs 1.6 crore more than last fiscal’s allocation.