PATNA, June 26 -- Following the recent tragic fire at a coaching institute in Lucknow's Aliganj area, the district administration and the Bihar Fire Service have stepped up efforts to assess the safety arrangements at coaching institutes in the state capital. Keeping student safety in view, the fire department has conducted fire safety audits of hundreds of coaching institutes across the city, officials said on Thursday. Fire department officials noted that a large number of students attend coaching institutes every day, and any negligence in fire safety measures could lead to a major accident. During the inspections, several well-known coaching institutes were found to be flouting prescribed fire safety norms. Consequently, the fire department has issued notices to 80 institutes, directing them to rectify the identified shortcomings within a stipulated timeframe. District Fire Officer Ritesh Pandey and his team inspected coaching institutes operating in various parts of the state capital to ensure compliance with fire safety standards. The fire department found that several institutions were not complying with mandatory fire safety norms. In many cases, emergency exit provisions were either absent or inadequate, while some buildings were found to have incomplete or non-functional fire escape staircases....