Chandigarh MC sitting on tinderbox, own building not fire safe
All these buildings house offices directly dealing with the public, and witness a huge footfall every day.
Forget about keeping residential and commercial buildings in the city safe from fire, the Chandigarh municipal corporation is itself sitting on a tinderbox.
An audit carried by the civic body found 19 glaring violations of fire safety norms in its building at Sector 17. A similar audit at the UT deputy commissioner (DC)’s office and buildings of the Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA) and UT food and supplies department — all in Sector 17 — found that there are no measures in place to combat a blaze.
All these buildings house offices directly dealing with the public, and witness a huge footfall every day. The audit was conducted after fire broke out at the administration building of Panjab University on May 14, destroying records of the accounts section.
The audit found seven shortcomings at the RLA office and 11 at the DC office.
MC chief fire officer Shilpi Pattar Dutta said: “We have written to the officers concerned and asked them to rectify all shortcomings as soon as possible. We have also formed three teams to conduct audit in all the buildings of Sector 17. They have started work on Monday.”
On July 3, lack of preparedness of the firefighting department was laid bare when fire broke out at the Punjab treasury and accounts office, located on the fourth floor of Punjab Financial Corporation building, in the Bank Square in Sector 17.
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“I will hold a meeting with the MC chief engineer and ask him to remove all shortcomings from the building. We have around 400 employees and the offices deal with public. We cannot take any chance,’ said mayor Asha Kumari Jaswal.
“The MC swings into action soon after a major disaster, holds inquiries and announces compensation for the victims. But within a few months, the lapses emerge again and the situation even worsens at times,” said Baljinder Singh Bittu, chairman, Federation of Sector Welfare Associations of Chandigarh.
Major fires at govt offices, banks
July 2017: Fire at the Punjab treasury and accounts office, located on the fourth floor of Punjab Financial Corporation building at the Sector-17 Bank Square. Although it was brought under control before it could spread further, the incident brought to the fore poor fire safety arrangements in the area
May 2017: Records of the Panjab University accounts section destroyed after fire broke out in its administration building
September 2016: A short circuit on the first floor of the main branch of the Punjab National Bank in Sector 17 started a fire that gutted furniture worth ₹20 lakh and records
June 2014: Two firemen died after a four-storey building collapsed due to a major fire at the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology in Sector 17
