THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Being run by the State Government and also located in the state capital does not help. Most of the government high schools in the city are in a dilapidated condition and can face danger anytime. It is the Education Standing Committee of the Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation that has disclosed this fact. The committee has also brought out a list of 29 government schools within the Corporation limits that are in urgent need of renovation works. But there is no need to be alarmed, according to the Corporation authorities, who have already taken steps to face the issue. The Corporation had assigned Trivandrum Social Service Society, a non-governmental organisation, with the responsibility of visiting the schools and designing new plans, that would be safe for each school. A copy of the compilation of these safety plans were released by Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation Mayor K Chandrika on the occasion of the International Day for Disaster Reduction observance organised by the Revenue and Disaster Management Department in the city on Thursday. ‘’A common problem of most of the government schools in the city is that the buildings are very old,’’ says Viji, the City Project Officer of TSSS. The average age of most of the school buildings is 75 years. There are some schools, like Government High School, Chalai, which are over a century old. The engineers of TSSS visited the schools listed by the Education Standing Committee and conducted a detailed study, following which they designed new safety plans accordingly. The renovation works will follow in accordance with the release of funds from the government. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated the International Day for Disaster Reduction observance presided over by Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan. The Chief Minister said that it was high time the state achieved self-sufficiency in the field of disaster management. Presently, the state would wait for the Army or Navy personnel to arrive every time a major disaster struck. Thiruvanchoor said that the department was planning to start knowledge centres across the state to impart technological knowledge to our youth, since awareness was the key word when it came to disaster management. Minister for Transport V S Sivakumar and Principal Secretary, Revenue, Niveditha P Haran, also attended the programme.
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