Flood-hit schools hygienically unfit, Govt tells High Court
‘How can you allow students going to schools to catch infection?’
The J&K government Tuesday admitted before the High Court that schools re-opened in flood-hit areas of Kashmir are “hygienically unfit to function.”
In its status report, the Health and Medical Education Department— on the basis of information furnished by Director Health Services Kashmir—has attested that schools reopened in the Valley following the September floods are unhygienic.
The report, submitted by the department through senior Additional Advocate General Javed Kawoosa, has highlighted that in districts Shopian, Bandipora, Srinagar, Kulgam and Pulwama, the condition of schools is unhygienic and the buildings are unfit.
The report confirms that in Srinagar district, 51 schools are un-hygienic while 12 schools have been found unhygienic in Shopian. The report says 33 and 91 schools are hygienically unfit to function in Anantnag and Kulgam districts, respectively. In block Pampore of Pulwama district, 44 schools and in Tral block of the same district 8 schools have been found unhygienic. In Bandipora district of North Kashmir, 20 schools are unhygienic.
A division bench of Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey sought status report from School Education and R&B departments with regard to condition of the school buildings hit by the floods after the government sought more time to file the same.
“It is a matter of concern. How can you allow students to go to schools to catch infection? And if the situation is so, then the report in Greater Kashmir is absolutely correct,” the bench said in its observation.
