John Wilbert
Port Blair, July 09: The number of coaching centres in South Andaman, are increasing day by day but the guardians are now worried about the safety of the children. Parents claim that many coaching centres do not have any sort of emergency exit, from where children can escape during any disaster.
In view of the devastating fire at a coaching centre in Surat, in which 22 students lost their lives, the guardians are now worried about the safety of their children and they want some immediate action from the side of local authorities to ensure safety of their children as well.
They claim that in the event of a fire accident or an earthquake, a number of these centres have narrow exits and there could be serious consequences.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, Mr. Sanjay Meshak a social worker said that every coaching centre must have a fire audit to make sure that during time of any disaster students can come out safely.
Dr. Jijit Rekh, a BJP leader told Andaman Sheekha that the popularity of coaching centres are increasing day by day in Andaman. Eventually, children are having good results and becoming beneficial but the problem is with safety.
“Considering the popularity, coaching centres should be concerned about the children’s safety. Especially the Fire Service should conduct proper audit and they must investigate each and every coaching centre separately. Particularly the coaching centres which have a lot of students, the Fire Service should do proper investigation and check the fire safety requirements so that the guardians can stay assured,” he said. Safety of children in coaching classes is a serious issue but it seems no one in Fire Service is having time to give information regarding this for public.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted the Chief Fire Officer to know more about this issue and what has been done till now regarding ensuring safety of students in coaching classes, he asked Andaman Sheekha to contact SP, Fire Service.
But sadly even after two attempts SP, Fire Service could not be contacted as everytime the SP Fire Service was busy in some or the other meetings.
Under these circumstances one can understand how seriously this subject of safety of students in coaching classes is dealt by authorities in Andaman. Atleast in this subject the civil society is much more aware and the civil society is now demanding urgent intervention of the Director General of Police in this regard.
