According to the review conducted by the Delhi Fire Services, one out of every five schools in Delhi does not have the periodic fire safety clearance certificate. The department received the highest number of fire-related calls in the past 10 years this Diwali.
“At least 20 per cent of the schools in the city — mostly the ones run by the government or municipal corporations — have failed to fulfil the safety requirements, due to which they do not possess the fire safety clearance certificate at present,” Delhi Fire Services director A.K. Sharma said. Sources in the Delhi Fire Services said the department is likely to prepare a list of schools which have failed to fulfil the safety requirements despite being intimated several times and will issue them notices soon.
In case of some schools, the safety clearances are pending for two years or even more than that, they said. Many of them had assured that they would get the changes done by the end of this year’s summer vacations. On the basis of which, the fire department anticipated a clearance rate of anything between 85 to 90 per cent by the end of this year. However, things did not turn up as expected, the sources said.
According to director (press and information) for North and East Municipal Corporations Y.S. Mann, many schools under the jurisdiction of the two corporations have fulfilled the fire safety requirements in consultation with the engineers’ department. “For others, they are trying their best to get periodic fire clearances as early as possible,” he said.
He added that some of those buildings, especially the ones in and around Old Delhi, are quite old. “Despite renovation, they have failed to fulfil the safety requirements for certain inches in several aspects,” Mr Mann said.
Out of the nearly 340 schools that come under the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, over 300 have procured the clearance certificate, SDMC’s director (press and information) Mukesh Yadav said. “For the ones that don’t, measures are being taken to procure fire clearance at the earliest,” Mr Yadav added.
