Awas Vikas gets show cause notice for flouting fire norms at group housing society

Ghaziabad: The office of the chief fire officer, Ghaziabad, has served a show cause notice to the Uttar Pradesh Awas Vikas over inadequate firefighting measures

Ghaziabad: The office of the chief fire officer, Ghaziabad, has served a show cause notice to the Uttar Pradesh Awas Vikas over inadequate firefighting measures at a group housing society in Siddharth Vihar.

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Ghaziabad district chief fire officer Sunil Kumar Singh said acting on the basis of a complaint filed by one Rajeev Kumar, his team raided Ganga-Jamuna-Hindon Apartments, in Sector 7 of Siddharth Vihar.

“During the inspection, it was found that the fire extinguishing apparatus in seven towers, including the one against which we had received a complaint, were not operational. Of the 12 towers in the housing society, only five are operational. Since fire panels, fire alarms and smoke detectors of the remaining seven towers were found ill-maintained and outdated, we have served a show cause notice to the Awas Vikas officials,” Singh said.

Awas Vikas superintendent engineer Narsingh Prasad admitted that safety lapses had taken place in the Ganga-Jamuna-Hindon Apartments housing society, probably due to the negligence of the staff concerned.

“We will look into the matter and rectify all faults as soon as possible,” he said.

However, inadequate fire extinguishing arrangements have left most residents in fear. “So far, all our complaints have fallen on deaf ears. Neither the Awas Vikas officials nor the fire department officials pay any heed to our repeated pleas. We are not sure what will happen now. Now that the fire department officials have also found lapses in the firefighting system, we hope to get relief soon,” Abhishek Singh, secretary of the Ganga-Jamuna-Hindon Apartment owners’ association, said.