DNA: Mumbai: Friday, October 21,
2016.
A day after
fire in a high rise building that claimed two lives, fire safety standards in
the buildings continue to be abysmal as per reply by the Mumbai Fire Brigade
department.
The fire
brigade department replied to an RTI application by issuing notices to over 50
percent of the buildings it inspected between 2010 and June 2016 in south and
north region.
The
information was provided to RTI applicant Jeetendra Ghadge. In his application,
Ghadge had sought information about the number of inspections done by the
department, the number of buildings that were issued notices and the cases that
were filed against premises that were issued notices.
Between
January 2010 to June 2016, the fire brigade department inspected around 8,840
buildings in city. Of these 4,592 buildings were issued notices under
Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Act, 2006.
Of the 14
court cases, that were initiated with the help of legal department, the fire
department asked the building proposal department to revoke occupation
certificate for two floors of a building in 2015.
The fire
department also directed the Brihanmumbai Electricity supply and Transport
(BEST) to cut electric supply but the city civil court gave interim relief. The
matter is pending since a year without any action on the building. "It is
extremely difficult for the fire department to make the developers and owners
of the building fall in line. Sometimes these offenders take shelter in court
proceedings or manage the Building Proposal department," said Ghadge.
Chief fire
officer, P Rahangdale said that reason for fire and other issues will be clear
by tomorrow. "No letter has been sent to the society yet and nothing has
started as of today. We will start the work from tomorrow and collect all
evidences and record statements too as a part of our investigation," said
Rahangdale.
.JPG)
.JPG)
