Swimming clubs using College Square pool to be shut for 7 days
Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC ) has decided to shut down all the swimming clubs using the College Square pool for a period of seven days.
The decision came in the wake of a death of a Class IX student Mohammad Shahbaaz of a swimming club who drowned at the pool on Sunday.
The Calcutta University Institute College Square (Vidyasagar Udyan) club located there has been barred from imparting swimming lessons for novices until further orders.
The victim, a novice belonged to this club and encroached into the pool meant for the seniors by crossing the demarcation line.
"We have decided to stop swimming activities in College Square for the clubs for seven days. Infrastructural audit of all the pools will be taken up, and then a decision will be taken on when to open the clubs," said Member Mayor in Council(Parks & Gardens) Debasish Kumar after holding a meeting with the five odd swimming clubs that use the College Square pool for their sessions.
The University Institute Club has claimed that there was adequate trainers at the time of the incident and the victim who has been learning swimming for three days dived to the side of the pool that have deep water meant for those who are adept in swimming. However, the they could not provide a satisfactory answer on allegations of lack of vigil that have surfaced after the death.
"We had issued a set of guidelines for the clubs after an ace swimmer Kajal Dutta drowned at the same pool in August 2017. We will check on our own whether the clubs are abiding by the directives. They have been asked to submit their infrastructural update in two to three days, following which our officials will visit the pool and verify the authenticity of their claims," a senior official of the Parks and Gardens department said.
The KMC has also decided to come up with separate swimming pools for learners across the city.
"We have already come up with such pools where there will be no scope to venture into deep water in a similar manner as the victim did," Kumar said. The KMC has plans to implement this decision by the next swimming season that will begin from March 2020.
