KOHIMA — The
department of Fire and Emergency Services in Nagaland is all set to enforce and
implement ‘The Nagaland Fire and Emergency Services Act, 2021’ in all
educational institutions across the state.
Sources from the F&ES department informed Eastern Mirror
that so far only 40 private schools out of the 773 registered private schools,
four private colleges out of 54 registered, and two out of 23 government
colleges and universities have acquired a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from
the department.
Out of the 1,931 government schools across the state, none
have obtained the NOC. However, all the CBSE-affiliated schools in Nagaland
possess the required NOC.
The department shared that since the Nagaland Fire and
Emergency Services Act is in its initial stage, they do not want to rush and
enforce the act as it might jeopardise the career of students.
However, after the Act was passed, the department conducted
a series of consultative meetings with representatives from institutions,
churches, malls, hospitals, district administrations, and various associations
and highlighted the importance of fire safety.
During the meetings, the department also informed that it
was going to implement the Fire Safety Act in a phased manner in all the
schools and the government departments.
Though the department affirmed that the Fire Safety Act
would be implemented in all educational institutions in a few years’ time,
there are apprehensions whether some schools in rural areas, which are hardly
surviving, can do so.
Different categories
According to the department, the basic requirements of fire
safety vary from school to school and area to area—so schools are categorised
based on the height and size of the building.
For instance, if the school has only a ground floor, the
fire safety requirement is very minimal. Likewise, the requirements will vary
for G+1 (ground floor and an additional floor above it), G+2 and G+3 buildings.
G+4 building is considered a high-risk building, so the fire safety requirement
will be maximum, it informed.
They also stressed that all G+2 and above school buildings
should have a minimum of two staircases to ensure that if one staircase is
blocked, children can use the other to escape during fire emergencies.
For private institutions, the installation of safety
facilities will purely be the domain of the respective proprietors, and the
government would have no hand in it.
One major challenge the department is facing is that there
are no subjects on fire safety and disaster management in school curricula, so
even the teachers are not well aware of fire safety tips.
From March to December 2024, the department had conducted
249 mock drills and awareness campaigns.
Dedicated training institute
The department informed that at present there is no
dedicated fire and emergency training centre in the state, and even the
department personnel are trained from outside the state.
Section 45 of the ‘The Nagaland Fire and Emergency Services
Act-2021’ states that Nagaland government may establish and maintain one or
more training institutes in the state for providing courses of instruction in
the prevention and extinguishment of fire as well as emergency services and
disasters.
Section 24 of the Act mandates that special buildings like
educational institutions, hospitals, nursing homes, assembly buildings,
business, mercantile, industrial, storage, and hazardous buildings, and
multi-storeyed buildings should have more than 15 metres in height and obtain a
‘Fire Safety Certificate.’
The fire safety certificate issued under the Act will be
valid for two years, irrespective of occupancy and subject to operational and
maintenance of fire safety installations.
‘Excellent job’
Meanwhile, Principal Director of School Education,
Thavaseelan K, lauded the F&ES department for doing “an excellent job.”
Speaking to this newspaper, Thavaseelan said that since
Nagaland is still in the initial stage of implementing fire safety guidelines,
the F&ES department has been quite lenient in enforcing fire safety norms.
However, he was of the view that to move forward, “stricter
implementation and regular monitoring will be essential to ensure the safety of
all stakeholders.”
He informed that the F&ES department has been doing
routine mock drills in schools to make them aware of fire safety norms.
The principal director shared that an ongoing online
training programme called Nagaland Disaster Management School Safety Policy
(NDMSSP) for all teachers (both government and private) is being implemented in
collaboration with the Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) and
NagaEd, which covers all aspects of safety measures.
He said that the compliance course is aimed at ensuring the
safety and preparedness of every school community across Nagaland.
