Uttarakhand HC directs state govt to sanitise all schools before board exams start

The HC gave these directions while responding to an urgency application filed by advocate Shiv Bhatt in an ongoing PIL related to the condition of the quarantine centres in the state and how the state was fighting COVID-19 epidemic.

Published on: Jun 19, 2020, 20:05:54 IST

Hindustan Times, Dehradun | By Neeraj Santoshi

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Uttarakhand High Court on Friday directed the state government to sanitise schools across the state before the commencement of the board examinations in the state from June 22. HC stressed that sanitisation would not mean mere sanitisation of the rooms but the sanitisation of desks, chairs, toilets and the entire school premises and examination centres

Uttarakhand High Court at Nainital. (HT File Photo)

The HC gave these directions while responding to an urgency application filed by advocate Shiv Bhatt in an ongoing PIL related to the condition of the quarantine centres in the state and how the state was fighting COVID-19 epidemic.

Last week, the Uttarakhand government had released the date-sheet for the remaining board exams to be held from June 22-25. The board examination dates were changed from June 20-23 to June 22-25 as the state government has decided to keep everything shut on weekends in Dehradun and one of the earlier dates was falling on a weekend.

“The concern raised here is that the Board examination of Class 10 and Class 12 which were being conducted by the Uttarakhand School Education Board had to be abruptly stopped due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These exams have been rescheduled and are to commence very soon (from June 22).. The concern raised is that many of these examination centres, particularly in village and tehsil level, are in such school premises which are either running as quarantine centres or were running as quarantine centres, and therefore, the students at these centres are at great risk of being infected from the coronavirus”, the court order said.

The HC said that advocate general has informed it that “no examination is being held in any educational institutions which are presently being run as an Institutional quarantine centre. Some of the education Institutions were indeed running as quarantine centres earlier but all of these were vacated and cleared by June 15, and they have been sanitised”.

HC in its order said, “For further precautionary measures, however, we direct the authority concerned to sanitise these centres today as well a day prior to the examination. The sanitisation would not mean mere sanitisation of the room but the sanitisation of desks, chairs, toilets and the entire premises. This shall apply to all the examination centres”.

On Wednesday, the state education department had released a fresh set of guidelines. Students will be thermally scanned before entering the examination centres and those students whose temperatures are found to be higher than normal, arrangements will be made for them to write the exam in a separate room on the same day. Also, examination centres will not be set up in any of the containment zones in the state and those students who are living in containment zones on the day of the exam, will be able to write the examination on a separate day.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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