The department of fire service, Gautam Buddh Nagar, recently issued notices to top private schools in Noida for failing to maintain fire-safety norms on premises.
According to an officer with the department, the management of many top-ranking international schools in the city had applied for no objection certificates. But most of these applications had to be rejected, as fire service officials found fire-fighting equipment to be non-functional upon inspection.
Kuldeep Kumar, assistant fire officer (Ph I) with the department of fire service, said several schools have been issued notices, asking them to comply with fire-safety norms. These schools include Apeejay School, Kothari International School, Khaitan Public School, Global Indian International School, Millennium School and Billabong High International School among others.
Though these schools have fire-fighting equipment in place, but they fail safety standards, stressed Kumar.
He said, “We have rejected the applications of a few schools twice, as they did not initiate course correction despite our recommendations. We will issue them notice one more time, failing which the matter will be escalated with the district's department of education.”
He also informed that the management of Ryan International School had recently obtained a no objection certificate, as the fire-fighting equipment was found functional. Pathway International School, too, was given a clean chit.
According to norms, a thorough check of fire-fighting equipment is to be conducted twice a year, but hardly any schools opt for mock fire drills to check the fire preparedness.
