Year on, no action against 192 errant coaching centres

Naina Mishra
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 5

The UT Estate Office has failed to take action against 192 coaching centres in the city that were served notices for not complying with fire safety norms last year.

In wake of the fire tragedy at a Surat coaching centre, which claimed 19 lives, the department inspected as many as 165 coaching institutes last month. Of these, 65 lacked fire safety arrangement and were served notices by the Fire and Safety Department. A report declaring high alarming state in 192 institutes was submitted to the Estate Office last year, but no action has been taken against these centres situated in Mani Majra, Sector 30, 29-D, 17, 15, 22, 35, 34, 37, 36, 38, 40, 41, and 47.

In almost all SCOs, there was no firefighting system installed in the buildings and fixed fire fighting systems were not found functional. The existing fire safety arrangement, including sprinkler, fire extinguisher, fire alarm, smoke detector and down corner at staircase was found non-functional.

As per the report, no proper passage to terrace was found in these centres and in many cases, the terrace door was found locked. The existing fire extinguishers also had zero pressure and fire pump was not found connected with electricity. Besides, illuminated emergency exit signboards were also found missing in almost all centres.

The inspections held in coaching centres in Sector 15 revealed that there was no provision of natural ventilation. According to the report, in one of the institutes, more than 90 students were being trained in one small room.

Chief Fire Officer Anil Garg said, “We have inspected 165 coaching institutes till now. Of these, 60-65 have been served notices. We are preparing notices for others too. As fire officers, we can send them deficiency notices. Now, Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) are passing orders under Section 144 to cease operations. We will keep sending inspection reports to area SDMs so that they take action against such shops.”

When asked about why no action has been taken against the institutes served notices last year, Garg said, “We can only send notices, but SDMs have to take further action on these.”

Violating fire safety norms

Of 400 plus institutes that were inspected last year, 192 were served notices. Fire safety provisions are to be observed as per the National Building Code of India and the Delhi Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Act, 1986, as extended to the UT

The violations

• No firefighting and safety arrangement in the building
• No hose reel, if provided not working, Detection system not working
• Down corner system not working at staircase
• Fire extinguisher require refilling and hydraulic test
• Expired fire extinguisher, Terrace tank capacity less than 10,000 litre
• Loose wiring found in staircase, Exit signboard not provided

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