Fire safety concerns come to the fore following school inferno

Lucknow, Dec 9 (UNI) The City Montessory School (CMS) in the state capital, which figuers in the records for having the maximum number of students, has drawn the ire of Uttar Pradseh government for ignoring fire safety norms following a devastating fire.

A major fire broke out last night in the school's Kanpur Road branch, the venue of ongoing International Conference of Judges. The incident, which took place soon after the event, has once again exposed the arbitrary constructions sans required fire safety norms.

Union minister of state for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal was also a guest.

The inferno engulfed the auditorium.

''We have issued several notices to school owner Jagdish Gandhi in the past about necessary norms for the safety of thousands of students studying in it,'' a senior UP Fire Services oficial told UNI here .''Last night is incident has invited certain punitive action against the school chain,'' he said It was just a fortunate chance that the important persons from the judiciary all over the world left the premises just before the incident.

District Magistrate Ramendra Tripathi and District Police Chief Rajiv Krishna, who had visited the scene after the incident, said prima facie it seemed a lapse on the part of the school administration but the real cause would come out only after proper inquiry into the incident.

Meanwhile, the District Magistrate has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident while the UP Fire Services department is going to issue a show cause notice to the school chain.

A senior UP government official said there had been several complaints of irregularities with regard to violation of various civic rules against the school but nothing could be done.

The CMS chain has its name in the Limca Records books for maximum number of branches and the students in Lucknow.

Mr Jagdish Gandhi, founder chairman of the CMS, could not be reached for his cimments despite repeated attempts.

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