news details |
|
|
| 34 schools burnt in Valley; 5 juveniles among 33 arrested: Govt | | HC hails officials, asks them to ensure mechanism to prevent damage to schools in future | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Dec 2: Thirty three persons including five juveniles have been arrested in connection with 34 incidents of school burning in Kashmir Valley; the state Government informed the J&K high court.
Hearing a Public Interest Litigation, a Division Bench of Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Justice Bawa Singh Walia also appreciated the role of officials in preventing the damage to schools as no incident of arson or harm has been reported since November 7.
"The Chief Secretary, in compliance to the order of this Court, appears to have sanitized all the authorities for ensuring complete and strictly implementation of the Court orders and in this behalf appears to have issued advisories for strict implementation of the court orders so as to save the school buildings from being damaged/burnt," the division bench said.
"Status reports, as separately filed by these three officers, are satisfactory," the court said, adding that that it was appreciable that from November 7 onwards, there has been no report of fire incident or damage to the school buildings.
"Furthermore, in view of the mechanism in place, various school buildings have been timely saved with the help of school staff and respectable of the concerned locality, which we appreciate," the division bench said, dispensed with the personal appearance of the three officers in the Court, for the time being. However, the court directed the officers to ensure, in coordination with each other, that the mechanism in place for saving school buildings is further strengthened.
Advocate Sheikh Umar Farooq, who was present in the Court, pointed out that in some of the schools protective measures have not been put in place. He shall be at liberty to file his response and assist the Court.
Earlier, as the proceedings of the PIL started, the DSEK informed that Chief Secretary of the state convened two meetings on 23 and 30 November through video conference. The Divisional Commissioner Kashmir also took meeting of DCs and CEOs as follow up the instructions regarding safeguarding of the schools in Valley.
As per feedback provided by CEOs, the DSEK informed the court that while 2939 fire extinguishers are already installed in various schools, installation of fire extinguishers in thousands of schools require additional financial resources which may take time. It was decided to install alternate fire safety measures in the form of "fire safety points", the DESK said.
Regarding installation of flood lights in the premises of the schools, the DSEK said that huge financial involvement was needed and required technical/administrative approval which will take time. But in the meantime, the DSEK said, all CEOs submitted information regarding providing of electricity to the schools and as per it, 2207 schools have electric facilities whereas 6004 are still un-electrified in Kashmir Division.
It was decided to provide more LED bulbs in addition to the available bulbs, as a result, wherefore, 4414 LED bulbs were requisitioned from Chief Engineer, PDD (worked out @ 02 bulbs per school), the DSEK said. "The Chief Engineer, PDD, has provided 4400 LED bulbs to the Directorate which stand distributed to CEOs for such schools," the DSEK said.
For providing electricity connection to 6004 un-electrified schools, matter has been taken up with Chief Engineer, PDD, the DSEK said and the court directed him to latest status be filed by next date of hearing.
"For speedy disposal, as well arrest of miscreants/ accused involved in the commission of offences, SITs have already been constituted by the SSPs, which are being monitored by the range of DIGs. The investigation of the cases is going on and the High court shall be apprised about the progress of investigation during the course of time," the officer added. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
