Cross-ministry committee to review safety norms in schools

A six-member committee formed with secretaries from various ministries will review the norms with respect to safety and their implementation in schools, the Women and Child Development (WCD) and Human Resource Development (HRD) ministries decided here on Monday.

The decision was taken in the wake of the gruesome murder of a seven-year old student, Praduman Thakur, on September 8 who was found with his throat slit in the washroom of Ryan International school in Gurugram.

"Committee of six secretaries to be constituted to monitor the implementation and progress measures," WCD ministry said in tweet.

The secretaries are to come from Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, HRD, WCD, Tribal and Minority Affairs, and Drinking Water and Sanitation.

The HRD and WCD ministers Prakash Javadekar and Menaka Gandhi co-chaired the meeting here to review the safety norms of schools and suggest new measures.

The WCD ministry wrote on Twitter that more meetings will be held in future to "develop a roadmap for implementation of the recommended measures".

Officials from the Central Board of Secondary Education, NCERT, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools were also present at the meet.

Ryan International reopened on Monday after a lapse of 10 days since the incident happened, but announced in the evening that it would remain closed for another week. Ashok Kumar (42), a bus conductor at the school, has been arrested by the police for the crime.

--IANS

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