Cannot follow fire safety rules: Private schools write to government
HYDERABAD: After demands for fee enhancement and quarterly fee reimbursement by private junior, degree and post graduation colleges, it is private school management, that have now reiterated their demand for exclusion from fire safety regulations.
In a representation sent to education Minister Kadiam Srihari on Monday, Telangana Recognised School Management Association (TRSMA) has asked for an exemption from abiding with the fire safety norms. Their justification—majority of schools in the state were established were before the National Building rules came into effect.
“The fire safety rules and police NOC became mandatory for getting approval only from 2005. But, 90 per cent schools in the State were established before that, and these schools can fulfil neither NBC norms nor the fire NOC norms,” said S Madhusudan Reddy, treasurer of the TRSMA.
Junior and degree colleges are exempted from fire safety norms for buildings up to five floors, while for schools the exemption is only for double-storied structures. He alleged that though all schools under the TRSMA have installed fire safety equipment, they face trouble when they have to renew the affiliation —an affair they undergo once every 10 years —as the officials delay the process for the want of numerous NOCs from fire and police departments.
To be able to get overcome such issues, TSMA has demanded permanent recognition for schools that are more than 10 years old. In addition, they also want property tax on school buildings to be assessed under the residential category instead of the present commercial rates. It warned that failure to do so would ultimately result in shifting of the burden to parents.
The body has also raised the issue of delay in the conversion of Telugu medium schools into English ones and recognition for the pre-primary classes. Though a memo to this effect was issued last October, school management associations allege that their applications for the conversion have either been rejected or kept in abeyance.