School fire probe report reveals reasons for high casualties

Chennai, Sep 2 (UNI) The findings of the one-man Sampath Commission, probing the fire mishap at Kumbakonam, has revealed that the reason for the high casualty rate was due to the school administration having achieved a sizeable attendance by including children unconnected with the school.'' This was one of the significant findings of Justice Sampath Commission which went into the horrenduous tragedy at the Sri Krishna aided Primay school in Kumbakonam on July 16, 2004, in which 94 children were killed, when a spark from an oven in the noon meal centre ignited the thatched structure, trapping the students inside.

The Commission's report, tabled in the Tamil Nadu Assembly today, revealed that ''children unconnected with the aided school were stacked like sardines with the ulterior purpose of boosting the attendance''.

''The gruesome accident and the consequent death of 94 students is an indictment of the management, the noon meal centre staff, the revenue authorities, the chartered engineer, the municipal authorities and the Education department officials, who had refused to recognise their obligation towards the children in housing or accommodating them in structures which were death traps'', it said.

Observing that the person who lighted the oven had left the scene after closing the kitchen door, the report said ''it was an accident due to the carelessness of the noon meal staff, the callous indifference and criminal insensitivity on the part of the management running the schools compounded and abetted by the departments concerned which had failed to implement and enforce the laws and safety standards''.

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