The death of two persons—a fireman and an IAF employee — during Sunday’s building collapse and fire incident served as a wake up call to the UT Administration. In a damage control mode after the incident, the UT Administration on Monday took a series of decisions.
The UT Administration has directed the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh to check the violations of fire norms in the commercial sites and take stern action against defaulters. Besides, an inquiry Committee has been constituted to look into the reasons of incident and prohibitory orders has been issued in the area around the collapsed building.
The UT Administration has also decided to publicise its emergency toll free number 1077 to avoid such disasters in the future.An emergency toll free number 1077 is functioning 24X7 from the Civil Defence-Cum Disaster Management control Centre under the command of UT Deputy Commissioner. The UT Administration has advised the general public that to avoid any disaster like situation in Chandigarh, any person can contact the helpline number to inform about such incidents.
A three-storey building of National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (referred to as DOEACC) in Sector 17 had collapsed after the fire broke out in it on Sunday. Besides the casualties, a loss of several crores of rupees was reported after the incident as the records related to water and electricity of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh was being managed at the building centre.
A number of lapses from delay in the rescue operation to ill-preparedness of the authorities were witnessed during the rescue operation.While talking to The Pioneer, UT Home Secretary Anil Kumar said that an inquiry Committee has been constituted and the report will be submitted soon. An action will be taken accordingly.
He said, “Compensation will be given to the family of deceased fireman. The concerned department has been directed to do the needful… An announcement regarding this is likely to be made tomorrow morning.” On the issue of lapses during the rescue operation, he said, “The firefighters