Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has decided to conduct surprise inspections to ensure that all educational institutions, especially schools, are in compliance with fire safety norms and submit a report of the same to the state education department.
The civic body has already to the education department that out of the 10,000 schools n the Greater Hyderabad region, a mere 50 were in compliance with the fire safety norms while the remaining posed a grave threat to their students. The corporation officials said, however, that they would write to the education department once again after conducting surprise inspections, and asked them not to renew licenses or cancel the existing ones before the beginning of the academic year.
According to GHMC officials, the corporation will form special teams to inspect schools at the circle level over next one week to assess their fire safety standards based on the 2009 Supreme Court order, which directed all educational institutions to be in compliance with the National Building Code of India (NBC), 2005.
Although the GHMC has not maintained a concrete record of schools, its preliminary survey report suggests that there are about 4,000 schools alone in Hyderabad district, 3000 in Ranga Reddy district, and 3000 in Medchal-Malkajgiri district.
After their letter to the education department, over 200 schools applied for the fire safety certificate of which, less than 50 schools were found to be in compliance with the norms.
Mr Vishwajit Kampati, director of the enforcement, vigilance, and disaster management wing of the GHMC, said that 15 per cent of schools were in compliance with the fire safety and NBC norms. The corporation had rejected around 110 fire safety applications during the last week and issued certificates to less than 50 schools.
He said the corporation would inspect all schools. "The corporation will prepare a list of violators and share it with the education department. The first list of violators has been submitted to the education department, and they should take the final call after discussing it with the government."
