Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Dec 2: Police today informed the State High Court that 33 persons have been arrested for torching schools across Kashmir and dossiers for booking 14 of them under Public Safety Act (PSA) have been submitted to the District Magistrates for issuance of detention warrants.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir in his report informed the court that till date 33 accused have been arrested and are being dealt with sternly. “Out of 33 accused arrested in such cases, dossiers against 14 accursed persons have been submitted to concerned District Magistrates for issuance of detention warrants under PSA. 9 warrants have been received out of which 6 detention warrants have been executed till date”, report revealed.
The IGP’s report said that for safety, the schools have been categorized in three types – hypersensitive, sensitive and less-sensitive. There is permanent deployment and permanent Nakas near sensitive schools and less patrolling in sensitive areas.
The report said that on 65 places where school building are located have been categorized as hypersensitive and 115 police personnel have been deployed for round the clock guard duty to ensure that no mischief takes place at these places.
The IGP submitted that more than 650 school buildings are visited every day during vulnerable hours (late evening and early morning) by police patrolling teams and supervisory officers. “So far more than 15000 such visits have been conducted. The lacunas like absenteeism of staff/chowkidars besides other drawback noticed during such visits have been forwarded to the concerned DCs / schools authorities”, the report read.
“Due to the effective mechanism put in place, 14 incidents of the school burning have been timely addressed and property has been saved. As a result of effective mechanism there has been no report of school building arson since 7.11.2016”, read the compliance report of IGP.
Court has also been informed that 4 fire incidents took place in district Srinagar and 4 persons arrested. In district Ganderbal 1 incident took place and 1 person arrested. About District Baramulla, 4 incidents of fire in schools took place and 6 persons arrested. In district Kupwara, 2 incidents took place and no one has been arrested, in Handwara 2 incidents and none arrested and in Bandipora 4 incidents took place and no one was arrested. In Anantnag, 7 incidents took place and 6 persons were arrested, in Kulgam 7 incidents took place and 10 persons were arrested and in Shopian 2 incidents of fire in schools took place and 3 persons have so far been arrested. And in 34 incidents of arson, 33 persons have been arrested.
“Out of them 28 are adult and 5 are Juvenile, Dossiers submitted to District Magistrates against 14 and warrants received against 9. However, warrants have been executed against 6 persons till date”, the report said.
For speedy disposal, as well arrest of miscreants/accused involved in the commission of offences court has been apprised that 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”, IGP submitted.
Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) submitted before the court that Chief Secretary convened two meetings on November 23 and 30 through video conference. Divisional Commissioner Kashmir also took meeting of DCs and CEOs as follow up the instructions regarding safeguarding of the schools in Valley.
“After discussion various decisions were taken, which include following decisions pertaining to this Directorate for preventing/safeguarding of schools buildings from gutting incidents”, report said.
Court has been informed that for providing fire safety measures, 2939 fire extinguishers are already installed in various schools. “So heads of those institutions/schools, which lack fire extinguishers, have been placed on instructions to install fire safety points which comprises of 25-50 cubic feet, sand, one spade and two sand filled iron buckets in the school to thwarting any mischief”, report of DSEK revealed.
With regard to adequate flood lighting in the school premises, Court has been apprised that the matter was discussed threadbare in the meeting and it was felt that the installation of flood lights in the premises of all schools has huge financial involvement besides requiring technical/administrative approval, and will take time.
It is further added that in compliance to the instructions regarding providing of electricity to schools, all CEOs submitted the information and as per the information furnished by CEOs 2207 schools/institutions have electric facilities, 6004 are still un-electrified in Kashmir Division. Un-electrified schools first required electricity connection and in this regard the matter has been taken with the CE PDK on Nov 26.
In order to provide water facility to all schools for thwarting any fire incident, CEOs were instructed to furnish the information/requirements of water tanks for the schools without water facility.
Schools with water and water tanks facility and those which lack this facility has also been provided to the court, which showed that there are 3685 Primary Schools and 1707 rented, 3226 and 1494 (rented) do have water facility with tanks and 459 and 213(rented) do not have water with tank facility.
“There are Middle Schools 3459 and 649(rented), 3126 and 464(rented) having water with tank facility, 339 and 30(rented) without water with tank facility. High Schools 780 and 125 (rented), 759 and 42 having water with tank facility, 21 without water with tank facility. Higher Secondary Schools 287 and 5 (rented), 285 having water with tank facility and 2 do lack this facility. CEOs concerned have been advised to provide a water tank to these schools which are lacking this facility to have control over fire incidents”, the report said.
With regard to engagement of contingent paid workers (CPWs) for security of the schools, DSEK submitted the engagement has been banned by the Government. However, enhancement of these CPWs involves huge financial requirement and policy decision requires at highest level. However, with regard to have vigil on schools the situation has improved as CEOs have already been directed to utilize the services of chowkidars, CPWs and local teachers (day time) as also involve all class-iv employees, laboratory bearers and MDM workers for watch and ward of the schools during night time.
“In this connection, department is utilizing the services of 25268 persons which include 3979 Class-IV, 7998 CPWs and 13291 cook cum helpers. It is also submitted in the report of DSEK that during the unrest period as much as 15 school building have been saved by way of proper watch and ward”, report said.
The Court while appreciating the steps taken by the State Government in saving the educational institutions from any damage and harm by miscreants directed the authorities for making coordinative efforts to save these institutions in future as well.
The Court was hearing a suo-moto cognizance taken by the Chief Justice of High Court, N Paul Vasanthakumar after reports about the torching of educational institutions in the valley for the last two months.
Court has dispensed with the personal appearance of Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Inspector General of Police Kashmir Range and Director School Education Kashmir for the time being as the court observed that these authorities have taken appreciable steps for saving educational institutions from further damage.
“However, the officers in coordination with each other shall ensure that the mechanism in place for saving school buildings is further strengthened”, directed the division bench of Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Justice B S Walia.
Court further added that Divisional Commissioner, Inspector General of Police as also the Director School Education Kashmir appears to have shown real commitment as follow up action and their compliance is also satisfactory.
Court has observed that since November 7 there has been no report of fire incident or damage caused to any school buildings and timely mechanism put in place by the authorities various school buildings have been saved with the help of school staff and respectable of the concerned locality with each other and them to file their latest status report by or before December 15 which is the next date of hearing in the matter.
Court observed that the compliance report filed by Chief Secretary of the State appeared to have sanitized all the authorities for ensuring complete and strictly implementation of the court orders. “It appears that advisories have been issued for strict implementation of the court orders so as to save the school buildings from being damaged or torched”, DB said.
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