Two coaching centres sealed in Jaipur over lack of safety measures

Jaipur: After the tragic death of three UPSC aspirants at a coaching centre in Delhi, Jaipur's coaching centres have also come under fire and two of them were sealed on Tuesday due to lack of mandatory safety requirements.

In a sudden inspection trip, Mayor, Jaipur (Greater) Municipal Corporation, Dr Soumya Gujjar, inspected three coaching centres in Gopalpura bypass locality, which has seen a mushrooming of coaching centres over the years. Out of the three, two were found lacking in basic requirements.

“Coaching centre Gurukripa, which coaches students for NEET and JEE entrance exams, was found without a fire NOC and non-payment of Urban Development tax. The second coaching institute, Kalam Academy was found to have more students than it could actually accommodate and also no fire fighting equipment at hand. Both of them have been sealed for now,” Sita Verma, deputy commissioner, Mansarover zone, Greater Municipal Corporation told Deccan Herald.

Gurukripa Career Institute is primarily a Sikar-based centre, established in 2007, and talks about its exceptional coaching for the 17 years and top results in engineering and medical entrance exams. It also talks about its inspiring campus including well-stocked libraries across its many centres. It has batches like Apex, Spark, Target batches for class XI, XII and JEE entrance exams. Its website also talks about spacious classrooms, study areas, health centres and security 24X7.

Kalam Academy is a coaching centre for IAS, RAS, Rajasthan Eligibility Examinations for Teachers (REET) and Patwari aspirants.

Verma added that in the next few days, all coaching centres in the area and other areas of Jaipur would be inspected and would be asked to furnish all the required and mandatory safety documents.

Mayor Gujjar also met the students, who were taking a class and asked them to remain vigilant and check all the safety parameters in a centre before taking admissions. She also asked students to lodge complaints immediately if they found anything lacking, including fire fighting equipment.

Jaipur (Greater) Municipal Corporation has instituted a high-powered committee including technical officers to look into the mandatory safety requirements of all the coaching institutes in the Greater Jaipur area and would submit a report as early as possible.

Jaipur Greater area has more than 150 coaching centres spread in areas like Gopalpura bypass, Tonk Ghatak, Pratap Nagar, Gujjar ki Thadi, which see thousands of students converging here from different parts of the state. During peak time, these areas get congested due to traffic snarls as students are either arriving or departing in hordes. Sources say most of these lack basic facilities like fire fighting equipment. However, no routine checks are conducted by the officials.