Times of India: Meerut: Monday, November 17, 2014.
Two days
after TOI reported that only 36% educational institutes renewed their fire
safety papers, it was found that a large number of schools and colleges
mentioned in the fire department's RTI reply had been issued fire safety papers
signed by chief fire officer (CFO) IS Soni this year. The fire department,
however, had incomplete data.
According to
a reply to an RTI sought by city-based activist Puneet Sharma, only 225 out of
616 educational institutions in the district renewed their papers. All schools
and colleges are supposed to get a no objection certificate (NOC) from the fire
department. Several institutes raised objections after they were not named in
the list.
Sophia Girls'
School principal Sister Mar said, "We have got the NOC from the fire
department and we are very particular about following norms. Why would we risk
ruining the name of our institute by not taking required permissions?"
It was found
that Guru Tegh Bahadur Public School was also not named in the list, despite
having all papers in place.
"We have
the NOC, duly signed by the CFO, dated April 21, 2014. It is valid till April
20, 2015. I have no clue why our name was not included in the list of
institutes which have got their fire papers renewed," said Kapil Sood,
principal, GTB Public School.
CFO IS Soni
admitted it was possible that fire safety officials did not have full
information. "The RTI must was signed by me but the list of institutes was
prepared on the basis of the information given to me by fire safety officers. I
think they did not have the complete information," he said.
When asked
who should be contacted, Soni passed the buck onto the basic shiksha adhikari.
"BSA Jeevendra Singh would be the right person to contact. He would know
the details about fire safety papers," Soni said.
Despite
attempts to contact Singh, he was unavailable for comment.
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