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Kochi: The Kerala Commission for Child Rights has once again emphasized the need to ensure complete fitness and safety in school premises before welcoming children to the campus. The commission made these observations while issuing instructions to the local bodies to look beyond just the fitness of the building structure.
The commission has directed the local bodies to look into various other issues which may be harmful for the students coming after the prolonged COVID-19 lockdown.
The commission was issuing directions to the local bodies while hearing a suo moto case following media reports that garbage from the market overflowed into the drain next to the office room of AUP School, Kunnamangalam. Nala is just 100 meters away from the school office hall. Commission members K Nazir and B Babita reached the school to inspect the campus during the hearing of the case.
The child rights panel said that local bodies should issue fitness certificates or NOCs only if they comply with all the rules and guidelines issued by the government. “During our interactions with various district authorities, it has come to our notice that the local bodies are only checking the fitness of the building and issuing the fitness certificates,” it observed.
In the case of this school, it was found that the waste from the roadside and other areas as well as the market place was flowing into the drain next to the school. This drain is flowing next to the school building. This constant flow of waste is also stabilizing the surrounding environment which is not good for the health of the students as well as the health of the building. The commission said that local authorities should inspect such issues and help find solutions.
It asked the Kunnamangalam panchayat secretary as well as the sub-divisional engineer of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to find a solution to the issue. This happened because NHAI changed the direction of drainage flow.
Earlier, in view of the increase in the number of students coming to the schools, the education department had decided to give temporary fitness certificates to schools with tin sheets and asbestos roofs.
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