Days before 93 kids died, Govt brushed aside 18 objections, gave school all-clear

These are startling facts among many that an investigation by The Sunday Express has revealed: pieced together, they tell a story of how regulatory authorities and officials were not only shockingly negligent but also how they looked the other way as rules were bent and facts were fudged.

So that when the spark from the kitchen caught the thatch lying on the floor, the building, which housed three schools—Saraswathi, Sri Krishna Middle and Sri Krishna High—became a death-trap.

In his July 11 order, (No. 24503/F1/2004), Chennai-based Director of Elementary Education, R Kannan—who had since been suspended—granted the certificate for renewal of licence for the Saraswathi Nursery and Primary school.

The school had applied for renewal in June 2003. Documents examined by The Sunday Express show that the Assistant Elementary Education Officer, Balasubramaniam, in his inspection report on the school, (No. 6565/2003), raised several objections:

• School authorities had shown no records for renewal of licence between June 2000 and May 2003. In other words, the school functioned without a licence for three years.

• The school did not furnish the mandatory ‘‘structural stability/suitability’’ certificate. This checks the safety parameters of the building, including entry and exit points, size of staircase landing, etc—factors which were critical that fateful morning when 900 children had a door, barely three feet wide, to escape.

• In the very first page of its application, the school claimed it rented an adjacent 5-acre playground. On the second page, it claimed the playground is in Perumandi village, which is 2 km away.

• The Assistant Education Officer clearly said that renewal of licence could be recommended only after ‘‘deficiencies are set right’’.

• However, school proprietor Pulavar Palanichamy procured a ‘‘structural stability’’ certificate from an authorised engineer. In his statement to the police, the engineer, who has been arrested, has admitted he issued the certificate but his assistant inspected the building.

• The school addressed none of the other ‘‘deficiencies’’ pointed out by the Assistant Education Officer but senior education officers at Kumbakonam glossed over these objections and recommended renewal of the licence.

• The Kumbakonam Municipal Corporation, in charge of the noon meal centre at the Sri Krishna Middle school, never inspected the thatched shed kitchen where the fire started.

As many as 10 education officers have been arrested so far. Interestingly, the officer who raised objections has also been remanded, because he had not inspected the school for nearly three years.

The former Kumbakonam Tahsildar has been arrested, too, for recommending the renewal of licence for the school based on a ‘‘defective sanitation and structural stability certificate.’’ In their statements to the police, the arrested officials have claimed that Palanisamy threatened to ‘‘eliminate them’’ if the licence was not granted.

The Sri Krishna High School, in the same building, started in 1950, managed to survive despite then district education officer virtually derecognising the school for its irregularities. He stopped the grants-in-aid for Classes VI and VII and rejected its plea for upgradation to Class IX. However, Palanisamy went in appeal to the School Education Director, who gave approval for upgradation, provided he did not avail of Government grants. But school authorities moved the Madras High Court and obtained a stay. Surprisingly, the Education Department did not choose to get the stay vacated.