Flames of greed

The inquiry report on the Kumbakonam school fire in July 2004 indicts the school management and government officials.

"It was not an accident of fate, but an accident on account of utter disregard of rules for safety."

- From the Justice K. Sampath Commission of Inquiry report on the death of 94 children in a fire at a school in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, on July 16, 2004.

CIVIL society's anguish at the way educational institutions, both government-owned and private, were being run in Tamil Nadu found an echo in the report of the Justice K. Sampath Commission of Inquiry, which was tabled in the Assembly on September 2. The lack of infrastructure and basic amenities, the violation of rules governing the safety of school buildings and the inadequate and ineffective government mechanism to ensure that the school managements adhere to the norms were some of the basic questions that educationists and experts raised in the aftermath of the tragedy (Frontline, August 13, 2004).

The Sampath Commission report comes as a vindication of many of these apprehensions and misgivings and blames the tragedy squarely on the "avarice and shady dealings" of the Sri Krishna Aided Primary School management. The Commission has indicted 24 persons, including Pulavar Palanichamy, correspondent of the Sri Krishna Girls High School, which functioned on the same premises, some of his relatives, the cooks and their assistants at the primary school's noon meal centre, besides government and municipal officials. The indicted persons have been identified as the prime culprits and 12 of them are already in the dock.

The Commission observed that poor infrastructure and the violation of safety norms were the main reasons for the accident: the fire started in the thatched roof of the noon meal centre's kitchen and spread to the thatched roof over the classrooms on the first floor. "It was avaricious cruelty on the part of the management to have made so many innocent children sit in the classes under the thatched roof and lose their precious lives," the Commission comments in the report. It also identified inadequate exit facilities (even the only exit path was blocked by burnt bamboo sticks and thatches), the absence of water and fire-fighting equipment, and the lack of training for teachers in disaster management as the other reasons.

Explaining the large number of deaths, the Commission said children from the high school and Saraswathy Nursery School on the ground floor, the third school on the premises, had been "herded" into the classrooms of the aided primary school on the first floor. This was done to boost the numbers in the primary school in anticipation of the visit of the Inspector of Schools that day. The management apparently followed this practice in the belief that the attendance on inspection day determined the quantum of government assistance for the noon meal scheme. The casualties would have been far fewer had so many children not been packed into the primary school in order to hoodwink officials, the Commission said.

Several parents complained about this practice during their depositions and teachers confirmed it, the Commission said. Palanichamy had "absolutely no answer to this state of affairs". The report says, "The management opened its mouth too wide. Most of the teachers have spoken of this shift from the other two schools. But according to them [the teachers], they were helpless. They had no choice but to obey orders."

Three schools functioning on the same premises was itself in flagrant violation of the State Education Department's rules. In a strong indictment of the authorities, the report says: "The authorities had been hoodwinked or purchased outright for allowing the management to run three schools where not even one school could be run." And, the primary school had its classrooms on the first floor, which was in violation of the stipulation that such schools had to function on the ground floor.

The report gives a detailed account of how Palanichamy bought the primary school in the 1960s, then about 10 years old and located in a `thatched house', and expanded it to have three schools within 30 years. About 800 pupils were accommodated in a 2,000-square-foot building that was not sufficient to house even five families. Classrooms had been constructed "in long bays more in the nature of godowns", according to the Commission.

The expansion was achieved by apparently "defying the law at every step" with the connivance of pliable officials. The government awarded "conditional recognition" to schools at regular intervals, stipulating the same "conditions" every time. The management did not bother to fulfil the conditions, nor did the government bother to ensure compliance.

The Commission rejected the complaint from parents and some members of the public that teachers fled the scene instead of attempting to rescue the children. On the other hand, "it has to be said to their credit that nearly 700 children had escaped", the report says. In the Commission's view, "there was only lack of judgment on the part of the teachers and not culpable negligence".

"The Commission has found that it was an accident due to the carelessness of the noon meal staff, the callous indifference and criminal insensitivity on the part of the management running the schools, compounded and abetted by the departments concerned which failed to implement and enforce the laws and safety standards," said a Government Order issued on August 10. The G.O. also stated that the government accepted the Commission's findings and recommendations.

The recommendations, made after "extensive spot inspection" of over 2,000 schools (see page 36), relate to school buildings, construction of classrooms and staircases, provision of basic amenities, safety measures in laboratories and playgrounds, and procedures for granting recognition to schools and ensuring periodic inspections of educational institutions. A key recommendation is that the government review the functioning of recognised schools and ensure that they are run in strict compliance with laws and rules governing infrastructure and safety. It has suggested that teachers be trained in fire-fighting and disaster management.

Although Justice Sampath signed the report on June 30, 2005, and submitted it to the then AIADMK government 13 days later, it was tabled in the Assembly only on September 2, 2006, by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government. Normally, the government ought to table a report in the House within six months of its submission. However, in a statement attached to the 500-page report tabled in the House, Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy attributes the delay to "administrative reasons".

The Commission's report, in sum, is a virtual indictment of the school education system in the State. It gives enough indications about the extent of malpractices, defiance of law and violation of rules and guidelines indulged in by school managements, very often with the tacit approval of the bureaucracy and the support of the political establishment.

An inescapable inference from the report is how the state, by its gradual withdrawal from its statutory commitments in crucial social sectors such as education and public health since the 1990s, has made a mess of the school system in every respect, to the utmost disadvantage of the people, particularly the poor.