The Orissa High Court has directed the State Government to constitute a District Education Infrastructure Safety Audit Committee within three months in each of the districts to ensure the safety of the students in all the government-run schools.

The single bench judge of Justice Dr S K Panigrahi while awarding Rs 10 lakh compensation to the parents who lost their lone son in a wall collapse in Project Upper Primary School, Ranikiari in Ganjam district, issued directions to the State authorities to prevent recurrence of such tragic mishaps in school campuses.

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“It is ordered that a District Education Infrastructure Safety Audit Committee has to be formed in each district headed by the District Magistrate and Collector along with the members like District Education Officer”, Justice Panigrahi ordered.

Such Committee will ensure the safety audit of each and every school of the district and issue safety certificates to the school authorities every year in the month of June.

The District Education Infrastructure Safety Audit Committee will meet at least twice a year. The Committee will form a Sub Committee of Engineers pertaining to the Department of Rural Development and Public Works Department and ensure safety audit of the school infrastructures, which shall recommend for issuance of Safety Certificate to the School Authority.

There will be a grievance redressal mechanism under the aegis of District Education Infrastructure Safety Audit Committee at every block level.

It is the duty of the school headmaster of every school to report to the Block Development Officer ( BDO) concerned regarding unsafe walls and scrub up of any school building and the BDO will immediately take up the issue before the District Education Infrastructure Safety Audit Committee so that the issue can be resolved at the earliest possible. The District Magistrate and Collector will be the monitoring authority for the safety of the children to prevent such kind of mishap in school campuses, the court said.

The School Headmaster and the Block Education Officer will be held responsible for any kind of mishap due to falling off the wall or roof.

The School and Mass Education Department will have a Disaster Management Team to mitigate any kind of disaster in the form of falling of walls, fire or any other kind of calamity faced by the Schools, Justice Panigrahi noted in the judgment.

The Government has the liberty to improvise the guidelines issued above or issue detailed guidelines incorporating some more points since the aforestated guidelines are only indicative for mitigating the future mishap.

A comprehensive affidavit should be filed by the Secretary, Department of School and Mass Education after notifying the aforementioned directives to all the districts of the State. The said exercise will be completed within three months, the Court ruled in an order on Tuesday.