Notice to 14 schools in Noida for illegally outsourcing their swimming pools to third-party vendor

Anita Nagar, district sports officer of Gautam Budh Nagar , said that Apeejay School allegedly did not have the required No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for outsourcing the facility

The Sector 16A private school, where a 33-year-old man died in the swimming pool on Thursday, had illegally outsourced the pool facility to a third party vendor for commercial purposes despite receiving a notice just three days before the incident, officials said on Friday.

Schools in the city can only provide swimming pool facility to its students and not for commercial purposes, according to the district sport department rules. (Representative Image)

Anita Nagar, district sports officer of Gautam Budh Nagar , said that Apeejay School allegedly did not have the required No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for outsourcing the facility.

“The school does not have the authority to lease out its swimming pool facility to another vendor for commercial purposes. The deceased had taken membership through a third party company to go for swimming there. This is against the rules,” said Nagar.

Police have said that the postmortem examination report stated drowning as the cause of Nishant Kumar’s death. However, the school in a statement released on Friday attributed the cause of the death to “cardiac arrest”’.

On Thursday, Kumar, who was a resident of Defence Enclave in Sector 44’s Chhalera village and a chartered accountant by profession, had visited the school for the first time to use its swimming pool after obtaining a membership from the third-party vendor, police said adding that coaches were also present at the time of the incident. They added that 10-15 people were swimming at the time in the pool as well.

“Kumar went to the swimming pool at Apeejay School in Sector 16A, Noida at around 6.30am on Thursday for a swimming session on membership basis, and this was his first time at this pool. The autopsy report of the deceased revealed drowning as the cause of death,” said Rajneesh Verma, assistant commissioner of police-1, Noida.

Schools in the city can only provide swimming pool facility to its students and not for commercial purposes, according to the district sport department rules.

“However, the (Apeejay School) pool was being used for commercial purposes and the third-party vendor did not take an NOC from the sports department to use the pool,” Nagar said, adding that the pool has been sealed.

The school denied the allegation, saying that they have “all the necessary approvals required to operate the swimming pool”. It, however, said that the “upkeep and maintenance of the swimming pool has been entrusted to a specialized agency which also provides services of coaches, lifeguards...”.

“We are deeply saddened about a tragic incident that occurred at our school swimming pool. Preliminary enquires suggest that the cause of death was a cardiac arrest and was not a case of drowning. There were three lifeguards on duty who responded and rushed him to hospital. Regrettably, despite their efforts and medical intervention at the hospital, the person could not be saved,” the school said in a statement.

This is the not the first time that a school used its swimming pool for commercial purposes. Earlier, 14 schools, including Apeejay, in the district were served notices in this connection, officials said. According to DSO Nagar, she had received anonymous complaints regarding schools giving out swimming pools for commercial purposes to third-party vendor.

District magistrate Manish Verma said, “Action will be taken against those found flouting the rules and regulation.”