New Delhi: More than 20 Kendriya Vidyalaya buildings across the country have been found partially or fully unsafe in an audit, prompting the HRD ministry to issue directives that schools should not be run in them.

Most of these decades-old buildings are in Maharashtra (8), followed by Assam (3), according to human resource evelopment ministry officials. Of the eight in Maharashtra, three were constructed in the 1960s. Two buildings each are in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, and one each in Tripura, Meghalaya, Kerala, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Sikkim.

The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan had initiated action to get the technical audit done in respect of more than 10 years old school buildings through the Indian Institute of Technology, National Institute of Technology and government engineering colleges.

"As per the audit report, 21 KV buildings were found unsafe. While 18 of them have been found partially unsafe, three have been declared fully unsafe," a senior ministry official said. The three buildings found fully unsafe are in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

"The work of replacement of unsafe school buildings have been sanctioned in four KVs, including one in Gujarat and three in Maharashtra," the official said.

With respect to the remaining 17 KVs, the repair or replacement work can be taken up on receipt of estimates from construction agencies and availability of funds. "However, instructions have been issued to not run school in the unsafe buildings," the official added.

Vidyalaya Sangathan runs over 260 KVs in the country in temporary premises provided by sponsors, with a majority of the schools in Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, followed by Bihar.

Altogether, the Sangathan runs 1,206 KVs in India under the aegis of the HRD ministry; three such schools operate abroad.