Regarding the safety measures, there is more or less the same story of the coaching centers of major coaching hubs of Jaipur, Sikar and Kota in Rajasthan. Most of them are violating the norms and as often happens, the administration wakes up only after an accident occurs, the same is happening here too. In Jaipur, the Police Commissioner checked 538 coaching institutes and libraries and found irregularities in safety standards in 69 institutions, in which notices were issued to 31 institutions and 38 were sealed.
The coaching centers are running in almost every. City of Rajasthan but Kota, Jaipur and Sikar are the major coaching hubs. Kota is known for the preparation for NEET-IIT entrance exam. Capital city of Jaipur has centers of all types of coaching right from the preparation of civil services to government recruitments and NEET-IIT entrance exam, while the Sikar has emerged as a new coaching hub especially for the government recruitments.
Kota is a coaching hub for decades and students from every corner of the country come to study here. The big brands have all the facilities and fulfilling all the norms, but the problem is with small coaching centers as they have limited sources. At some places classes are being held in the basement of the building, while some have libraries or reading rooms.
Not only the coaching centers but the hostels and PGs are also running libraries or reading rooms in the basements of their buildings.
Most of the hostels and other residential buildings located in Jawahar Nagar, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Coral Park, Landmark etc. in the city have made basements in their homes.
There are more than 400 basements. Earlier, most of them used to have messes, but after the incidents of fire in the messes and considering safety, now the fire NOC is being issued only after taking an undertaking of not using the basements for mess or other commercial activities. When the corporation closed the mess, the basement remained vacant, so the operators gave it on lease for library and other works. The students who do not have a separate room or suitable environment for studies in house, hostel or PG, they go to these libraries or reading rooms to study. There are facilities of internet, Wi-Fi, AC-fan, light etc.
Most of the basements are in narrow lanes and have no emergency exits. Electrical panels and wires are lying open and seepage from the drain is coming inside.
Talking of Jaipur, most of the coaching centers in the city are in Tonk Phatak and Gopalpura Road area with hundreds of hostels and PGs running in almost the same situation of Kota.
The government has developed a separate coaching hub with all the required facilities in the Pratap Nagar area of the city, but the coaching centers are not ready to move there as the present location is at the mid of the city.
“ The government has developed coaching hub, but we have bought our present premises on very higher rates, and now it is not possible for us to buy another premises in the coaching hub," said a coaching center owner on anonymity.
Sikar is comparatively a small city but emerging as big hub of coaching of government recruitments, but the coaching centers here lack basic facilities for the students. There is water logging in the streets of coaching centers. These streets are so narrow that the fire brigade vehicles will not be able to enter.
However, the administration has awakened after the incident of Delhi and action is being taken on the building that are not fulfilling the norms.
Rakesh Vyas, the Chief Fire Officer of Kota Municipal Corporation said that security arrangements are being reviewed. The teams of the municipal corporation have seized 14 libraries running in the basement. The action has been taken at those places where there is a possibility of water logging and there is a drain passing nearby.
In Jaipur the Additional Commissioner of Police Kunwar Rashtradeep had directed all the police stations to send a report regarding the safety arrangements in the coaching centers in their areas and 69 out of 538 institutes and libraries were found with inadequate safety measures.
Some mobile numbers have also been made public by the police where a complaint can be lodged regarding the violation of safety norms.
