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PMC schools play with fire, lack of safety norms worry parents
An internal audit carried out by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) fire department in the first week of March has revealed that at least 100 PMC-run schools do not have fire safety norms in place
An internal audit carried out by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) fire department in the first week of March has revealed that at least 100 PMC-run schools do not have fire safety norms in place. The PMC-run schools had not been subject to a fire audit since 2019.
While the civic body claimed to have installed fire safety equipment in over 60 primary and secondary schools, the internal audit states 100 schools lack safety, thus causing a worry to parents.
The fire department stated that necessary water storage tanks, three phase power control mechanisms and electricity motors were missing from the schools.
The PMC has 267 primary and 39 secondary schools which are housed in 160 PMC buildings. Out of these buildings, only 60 had the fire safety norms and mechanism in place, the fire audit report stated. Over one lakh students study in PMC-run schools, said officials.
The general administration department claimed that 60 schools had installed fire safety system in 2018 and the work of the same continued till 2020. Later, the schools were shut for two years and as a result the system developed a snag and remained unrepaired since then.
Additional commissioner and incharge of fire department Vikas Dhakane said, “It is a fact that most of the PMC schools don’t have the fire fighting and safety norms in place. A special budgetary allocation has been made for the 2023-2024 budget for installing the facilities in all the schools.”
Parents have demanded that the fire safety system must be installed on a priority basis in all schools and a compliance report of the same must be sought by the education department and also other state government monitoring agencies for the safety of the students.
Yogita Bhosale, a parent said, “We regularly read about fire incidents and their disastrous consequences in the country. Hence, it is essential for PMC to act and install the fire system at the earliest. We have to make the lives of our children safe and fire safety must be given top priority.”
A school principal from a PMC-run school in Wanowrie, requesting anonymity said, “The demand for installing fire safety system is long pending. Parents are concerned and the civic body must act soon.”
RTI activist Vivek Velankar said, “It is definitely a cause of concern that the corporation which earns crores of rupees as taxes has not done enough for students’ safety. The PMC administration must take special measures and make a dedicated provision of resources from the annual budget towards making the students’ lives secure in their schools.”
The PMC however in its website claim that they have trained 10,000 students in fire and evacuation drills.
