Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ordered a magisterial probe and announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of 17 persons who lost their lives due to fire in a private hotel at Karol Bagh in central Delhi. Kejriwal along with Home Minister Satyender Jain inspected the spot.
Jain said that prima facie hotel was operating in violation of building laws as it was having an additional fifth floor while only four floors are allowed as per the building bylaws. The Minister wrote to the Revenue Minister, Kailash Gahlot for instituting a magisterial inquiry into the matter as to how the hotel building had more than four floors, whether deliberate violations were allowed to allow the building to operate commercially against building bylaws and responsibility be fixed for lapses, which led to such a serious and painful incident.
“Government has ordered a magisterial enquiry to ascertain the cause of fire and the reasons behind it, “It is an extremely painful incident and the cause of fire has not yet been ascertained. A magisterial probe is being set-up, which should be able to determine the cause of fire and lapses which could have led to such a painful incident. If there were violations of building bylaws, that will also be under the ambit of this probe. All relevant angles will be brought under the ambit of the probe,” the Chief Minister said.
Delhi Government has also directed the Delhi Fire Services Department to carry out an immediate inspection of the buildings in the area having more than four floors and take strict action as per the fire safety standards and guidelines to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future.
“A bare inspection of the area reveals that most of the buildings in the vicinity have more than four floors and have apparently come up in blatant violation of the building regulations and without the requisite fire safety standards and precautions,” said Jain.