130 coaching centres in Delhi fail fire safety test in citywide audit
None of the 130 coaching centres audited by the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) in the city so far were found to be “satisfactory” when it came to fire safety standards, said fire department officers. “Some coaching centres had a few arrangements to deal with fire situations, and some didn’t have any. But not one was found to be satisfactory in terms of fire safety standards,” said DFS director Atul Garg. A fire safety audit of the Capital’s coaching centres is being carried out on the orders of the Delhi high court in the wake of a major fire at a building in northwest Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar on June 15, from where several coaching centres were operating. “We began the audit on Wednesday and will continue till Sunday. From Monday we will start preparing our final report on the situation and submit it to the court early next month,” said Garg, adding that the audits were carried out at coaching hubs of Mukherjee Nagar, Kalu Sarai, Janakpuri and Laxmi Nagar. Garg said many coaching centres had a single narrow staircase to serve as the sole entry and exit route for hundreds of students studying in that building. Some coaching centres were equipped with fire extinguishers, but they were either old, or there was no one trained to operate them or were placed in spots difficult to reach in an emergency. Garg said that it was too early to say if the coaching centres audited by them were required to have a fire NOC (no-objection certificate). “The problem is that since coaching centres in Delhi are unregulated, they may not be legally in the wrong in not having the necessary fire safety arrangements. That is because there are no guidelines for the coaching centres,” said Garg. Since there is no record or complete list of coaching centres, the fire department doesn’t know the total number of coaching institutes it is auditing.
oustfire
None of the 130 coaching centres audited by the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) in the city so far were found to be “satisfactory” when it came to fire safety standards, said fire department officers.
“Some coaching centres had a few arrangements to deal with fire situations, and some didn’t have any. But not one was found to be satisfactory in terms of fire safety standards,” said DFS director Atul Garg.
A fire safety audit of the Capital’s coaching centres is being carried out on the orders of the Delhi high court in the wake of a major fire at a building in northwest Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar on June 15, from where several coaching centres were operating.
“We began the audit on Wednesday and will continue till Sunday. From Monday we will start preparing our final report on the situation and submit it to the court early next month,” said Garg, adding that the audits were carried out at coaching hubs of Mukherjee Nagar, Kalu Sarai, Janakpuri and Laxmi Nagar.
Garg said many coaching centres had a single narrow staircase to serve as the sole entry and exit route for hundreds of students studying in that building. Some coaching centres were equipped with fire extinguishers, but they were either old, or there was no one trained to operate them or were placed in spots difficult to reach in an emergency.
Garg said that it was too early to say if the coaching centres audited by them were required to have a fire NOC (no-objection certificate).
“The problem is that since coaching centres in Delhi are unregulated, they may not be legally in the wrong in not having the necessary fire safety arrangements. That is because there are no guidelines for the coaching centres,” said Garg.
Since there is no record or complete list of coaching centres, the fire department doesn’t know the total number of coaching institutes it is auditing.
