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Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service
Faridabad, May 25
The fire at a coaching institute in Surat claiming several lives on Friday should become an eye-opener for the local administration as safety norms are being allegedly flouted by a majority of coaching and educational institutions in the city. This is a claim of Ajay Bahl, a social activist who has now sought the status of fire safety norms in the city through an RTI application.
Claiming that the incident in Surat had occurred due to violation of norms, Bahl alleged that such regulations had been missing in Faridabad city also, where more than 80 coaching and tuition centres were functional. Revealing that while all these were being operated by private companies or individuals, the district authorities had perhaps no record of how many institutions had acquired a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the department concerned. The NOC is given after the applicant ensures that all fire safety norms are in place.
Addressed to the Deputy Commissioner, the questions asked in the RTI include the number of government and private coaching centres and institutes functional in the district which had not acquired an NOC from the Fire Safety Department and who would be held accountable in case of a fire incident.
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