For a decade,court’s warning on risk ignored

Though Section 42(r) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957 prescribed primary education as a statutory duty,its 1,802 schools in 12 zones rarely comply with safety norms. Plus they were found bereft of drinking water,toilets,electricity,fans and desks.

A government petition in 2001 found 137 primary schools functioning from under tents. A public report on certain MCD schools revealed a shortage of 1,055 classrooms,318 toilets without water,no drinking water in 43 schools and 113 schools with no separate toilets for girls. The Bench received the report with a grim response: “We can imagine the position in other schools.”

By February 2005,nothing had changed. Lawyer Ashok Agarwal informed a Bench of Justices B C Patel and B D Ahmed that students attend classes under tin roofs despite a court order in October 2002 to provide concrete roofs. A High Court panel of Chief Secretary,the Municipal Commissioner,Chief Executive Officer of the Delhi Jal Board and PWD officials had failed the children,he said.

In November 2005,the Bench was taken aback by a survey of the MCD’s educational and engineering departments that 256 schools had defective wiring and switchboards while 219 were in bad repair. On January 4,2006,the High Court gave officials two months to complete work on basic facilities in over 1,000 primary schools.

On August 23,2006,a Bench of Justices Vijender Jain and Kailash Gambhir restrained the state from opening a single government school without concrete buildings,urinals and water. On February 28,2007,the court,asked the government to take over the former’s schools — with then Municipal Commissioner present in the courtroom.

In April 2007,a Bench led by Chief Justice M K Sharma disposed of the matter after a decade’s hearings after the government assured it would carry forward the reforms.