Yogi orders safety audit of 1.3 lakh schools in UP

Lucknow, Sep 14 (IANS) The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to conduct an audit of over 1.3 lakh state-run schools to ascertain safety and usability of buildings.

The education department has come up with an audit checklist for inspection of school buildings and room-to-room observations along with external areas of the campus.

Director general school education Vijay Kiran Anand has asked all basic education officers to categorise school buildings as very good, good, bad and very bad.

The rating will be based on parameters such as boundary wall, floor, brickwork in walls, staircase and ramps, toilets, and fire, electrical and flood safety.

"Besides carrying out reconstruction of dilapidated buildings, we are checking the existing buildings for structural stability by conducting an elaborate school safety audit," Anand said.

The department had identified 13,698 school buildings as rickety which can collapse anytime. Of these, demolition work is in process in 7,100 schools. BSAs have been asked to mark the range of defects - cracks, seepage, and dampness - for the observation of columns, beams, walls and slabs.

BSAs have been given a 'Basic School Structure Audit Guidelines for Safety & Usability' comprising four sections - external facade of school building; reinforced cement concrete (RCC) elements, classroom, corridors and other spaces (kitchen, toilet, principal room); staircase and passages; terrace and roof. Each section has various parameters based on which markings will be done.