Delhi govt issues show-cause notice to Vikaspuri Private School operating without fire safety clearance
New Delhi, July 30
The Delhi Government has issued a Show Cause Notice to the management of a private school in Vikaspuri after a surprise inspection exposed life-threatening safety hazards and financial fraud.
According to the release, the school was found operating 43 classrooms illegally without any fire safety clearance, running massive unauthorised tin-shed structures, illegally extracting groundwater, exploiting teachers through unpaid salaries, enforcing unauthorised fee hikes, and running senior secondary classes without valid recognition.
Delhi Education Minister Shri Ashish Sood has directed the Department of Education to initiate the strongest possible action against the school's management.
The school has been given 7 (Seven) days to file its reply, failing which the government will proceed with immediate takeover.
Education Minister Shri Ashish Sood said, "Our government has absolute zero tolerance for any compromise on the safety of our children. This school was operating dozens of illegal classrooms with zero fire safety clearance, putting thousands of young lives at risk daily. When an institution constructs hazardous structures, loots public funds, underpays its teachers, and ignores the law, we will act decisively. We are prepared to completely take over the management to protect our students."
A surprise inspection conducted by a DoE committee exposed a complete breakdown of safety, financial, and administrative responsibility:
According to the release, the school has a Fire NOC approved for only 39 rooms but was actively operating 82 rooms--meaning 43 classrooms were running illegally with zero fire safety clearance. It also constructed a massive, unauthorised tin-shed structure with 30 rooms, an illegal basement, and an unauthorised third floor.
Some classrooms had only a single exit door, and the designated passage for fire engines and emergency vehicles was completely blocked. The school was running an unauthorised borewell on campus without permission, violating environmental and NGT guidelines, the release added.
The school's provisional recognition for its Senior Secondary classes expired on March 31, 2023. It has been operating senior secondary classes illegally for over three years, risking the academic future of its students.
The school repeatedly raised fees without DoE approval, including unauthorised 20% to 25% hikes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also doubled "Smart Classroom Fees" arbitrarily to extract money from parents.
Despite generating massive financial surpluses, the school did not pay teachers at par with government scales and delayed staff salaries by up to four months.
Opaque and Nepotistic Management: The school's governing body consisted of close family members, creating serious conflicts of interest, and failed to produce identification documents for verification.
The Directorate of Education has called upon the school's management to explain why the government should not execute the following actions: Government Takeover: Immediate takeover of the school's management by the Delhi Government under Section 20 of the Delhi School Education Act (DSEA), 1973.
As per the release, the official recommended that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) immediately cancel the lease of the highly concessional public land allotted to the school.
— ANI
Reader Comments
What's the point of a 7-day notice? In that time they'll destroy evidence, bribe officials, or run away with the money. These schools have been getting away with everything for years - unpaid teacher salaries for 4 months, illegal fee hikes, even operating senior secondary without recognition for 3 years! The government should have seized the school immediately and arrested the management. Our children's safety can't wait for bureaucratic procedures. 😡
This is exactly why parents need to be more vigilant. We send our children to private schools thinking they're getting better education but these schools are death traps! The tin-shed structures with 30 rooms alone is a tragedy waiting to happen. And extracting groundwater illegally? In Delhi where water crisis is already severe? These people have no conscience. Hope the DDA cancels their lease and the land is used for a proper government school instead.
I'm an expat living in Delhi and this is shocking. The nepotistic management structure - all family members governing the school - is a red flag that should have been caught earlier. In most countries, the education department would have a whistleblower system where teachers could report unpaid salaries anonymously. The fact that teachers endured 4 months without pay shows how badly they are exploited. Kudos to the government for finally exposing this but oversight failed for years.
As a parent with a child in a private school nearby, this scares me. We pay lakhs of rupees per year thinking we're investing in our child's future, but these schools are just collecting our money for their personal profit. The 'Smart Classroom' fee doubling is a classic scam - they charge for technology that barely works. The real victims are the families who trusted this school. I hope the government takeover happens quickly and the students get transferred to better schools without hassle.
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