Only 5 govt schools in Gurugram district ready to fight fire: RTI

Only five government schools in the district have valid fire safety permits, shows information shared by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) in response

Only five government schools in the district have valid fire safety permits, shows information shared by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) in response to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. In its response to the RTI query filed by activist Aseem Takyar, the MCG, last Friday, wrote that 128 government schools in the district did not have valid NOCs, and objections had been issued for the same.

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As per the Haryana Fire Service Act, educational institutions are required to have a no-objection certificate (NOC). Without a fire safety permit a building is not deemed fit to tackle a potential fire hazard.

A fire safety officer explained that a school building or any other premise is surveyed before a fire NOC is issued. If any part of the fire safety equipment or system is not complete, an objection is raised, he said. The objection implies that the school does not have a valid NOC due to non-fulfillment of the criteria.

Assistant divisional fire safety officer IS Kashyap said, “Government schools don’t have any valid NOCs. After the Surat fire tragedy (2019), we conducted a survey of schools and coaching institutes. Some never apply, while others are not able to fulfil the criteria for getting the certificate.”

Government school administrators, however, said they had basic fire fighting measures in place but did not have the funds to meet all the norms stated by the fire safety department for a fire NOC.

“We have applied for an NOC multiple times, but there are many requirements that need to be met which the school is unable to fulfill. We don’t have the money. The rules require that a fire extinguisher is placed in every lab, staffroom and kitchen, among other places. Just buying the equipment is not enough, there’s maintenance involved,” said Suman Sharma, principal of Government Model Senior Secondary School in Sector 4/7, Urban Estate, which is among the schools that do not have a fire safety permit.

She added that the school was trying to meet the basic criteria and had minimum safety requirements in place. “The government should allocate funds. They should get estimates done based on the location and size of the school,” Sharma said.

District education officer Premlata Yadav reiterated that schools had basic fire safety arrangements in place.

“Government schools may not have all the safety equipment required by the fire safety department, but they do have their own arrangements in place to fight fire. To give an example, all schools may not have safety buckets, but they have earthen pots instead which are filled with sand and can be used when needed. Government school buildings are also spacious and there is enough open area for students to escape,” Yadav said, adding that funds for improving fire safety were issued occasionally and the department used these funds as per requirement.