It seems that no lesson has been learnt from the fire tragedy of Hotel Arpit Palace that had claimed17 innocent lives in February this year as the committee formed by North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) to check violations of building bye laws, has failed to survey buildings, coaching centers and hotels to avoid future tragedy. A senior official of the corporation said not even a single notice has been issued by any of the zone to the building owners for related violations.
Similarly, no such measures have been taken by South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations either to avert such a tragedy, considering many of the coaching institutes are running across their jurisdiction without following any laid down norms. However, officials of East Corporation said that they have issued notices to 27 coaching centres in Laxmi Nagar for violating safety standards.
The questions that arise are; why such blatant violations are flagged only after an incident like Surat fire tragedy and who should be held responsible for such negligence and would authorities wake up only after another such incident?
According to corporations officials, a team of four officials was constituted in every zone under the supervision of District Health Officers (DHO). It includes official from building department, health department and general licensing. One of the DHO who did not wished to be named also alleged that the members in the team do not cooperate making it difficult for him to conduct inspection.
Interestingly, even after approximately four months of the Arpit Hotel tragedy, the corporation has not started the process of inspecting building premises which can be seen violating norms under the nose of the administration very comfortably, sources in the corporation said.
The official also highlighted that in areas of Mukherjee Nagar, Kalu Sarai, Munirka, South Extension Part 1, Model Town, Rajender Nagar, Karol Bagh and Kotla Mubarakpur, there are rampant coaching centers which are running without adhering to Delhi Fire Services (DFS) or MCD norms.
“Many of the institutions in these areas are running classes in two-three rooms which are full of students. They have narrow and single exits with no proper ventilation, air, and light but still functioning without any restriction. “If these buildings caught fire there is no escape route and it may invite an impending tragedy like that of the Surat incident in which 22 students were killed,” said a senior official of health department on condition of anonymity.
“The imperative question is who will fix the responsibility of the officials. The bitter truth is that such initiatives are announced as part of formality to avoid the pressure arises due to the corresponding incident”, said another official pleading anonymity.