Even as fire safety law sparks debate, taking cognisance of the loss of life and property in fires, the Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) of Delhi breathes fire and has asked to make mandatory fire safety norms in each construction and households in the national Capital. He has written to all civic agencies and the Delhi Police Commissioner for the ruthless implementation of the fire safety norms in all the buildings and industrial units in residential areas.
The Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) Dharampal has said no building should be allowed to be constructed sans proper building plans and fire safety norms. The buildings must be constructed in consonance with the building bylaws and should be linked with minimum standard of fire safety norms. Currently, building bylaws are not linked with fire safety norms.
As per data available with the Revenue Department, over 1 lakh fires were reported during the past five years resulting in more than 1,950 deaths and injuries to more than 11,600 people in Delhi. Most incidents took place either in unauthorised colonies or in slum areas.Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) Dharampal told The Pioneer that fire safety norms should be made mandatory for each and every construction and homes to prevent fires across the city. “The problem is more acute in unauthorised colonies, congested commercial and industrial areas. There is need for ruthless enforcement of fire safety norms in the industrial units operational in residential areas. Fire safety audit of such buildings needs to be taken on priority. In fact, local bodies should consider imposing heavy penalty and in extreme cases, resorting to shutting down of units which do not comply with fire safety norms in residential areas. No building should be allowed to come up in Delhi without sanctioned building plans and without complying with minimum standards of structural and fire safety,”said Dharampal.
In a letter, the Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) said local bodies should insist upon mandatory display of sanctioned building plan at the construction site and if no such plan is displayed, any authorised official (either from a local body or local police) should be authorised to stop further construction. “A rigorous enforcement mechanism is required to be developed in order to ensure that all existing and new construction activities positively comply with the structural and fix fire safety provisions in a legally enforceable manner,” the letter said.