Safety at stake at most of coachingcentres in city as deadline ends today

 

 

DEADLINE given to coaching institutes in the city for adherence of safety norms gets over on September 4, Wednesday, The Hitavada’s reporter visited a few centres to find the ground reality. Till Tuesday, it was found that centres are following instructions related to basement but other safety norms are grossly being ignored till Tuesday. Putting students lives’ at stake. Even required essential equipment to prevent fire were not available there while at some other centres the place was so congested to move freely in case of any emergency although those were not operating from basement. After Delhi Coaching incident where three UPSC aspirants lost their lives by drowning due to water-logging in the basement, in Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav on July 29 had directed officials to inspect coaching institutes running in basements across the State to ensure safety. Subsequently, Bhopal administration took tough action against those operating from basement at the same one month time were given to them to well equipped their centers with gadgets to fight in case of any contingency. CASE 1: There was neither smoke detector nor a fire alarm. When ‘The Hitavada’ asked them about the same M D Sharma stated on September 3, “Till September 4, necessary arrangements will be made.” CASE 2: A centre for UPSC aspirants, in this center too there was lacking of basic equipments meant to control fire. Top Management official told the newspaper that orders have been placed for fire alarm and other equipments as soon as we will get it, we will install them. Despite Collector’s instructions and warning situation is like this. These centres are least bother about candidates lives it seems that are not taking initiative at their own even after taking hefty fees. CASE 3:Here, The Hitavada found proper two entry and exit with all other instruments e.g. firefighters, portable fire extinguishers, sprinkler system and sand buckets etc. Overall the picture is gloomy as the more than one third centers still lacking fire fighting arrangements at a time when the deadline is going to end today. In a recently held review meeting held to assess the rain and flood situation, CM Yadav gave directions to conduct surveys of coaching centers in state and asked officials to ensure necessary safety measures for students. At least 13 coaching institutes, including libraries, were sealed for operating in basements in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district. The development comes after a coaching centre tragedy that took place in Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar, which claimed the lives of three UPSC students. In Bhopal too District administration took action against those were running from basement hope administration will also take action to ensure other safety norms.