Pune municipal commissioner orders fire and safety audit of all public buildings
The order has been issued in the wake of the Kamala Mills fire outbreak incident following which the health department chief, city engineer and fire department head have been asked to jointly submit a fire audit of the buildings on January 15 before 1 pm.
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner Kunal Kumar has ordered an emergency fire and safety audit of all the public buildings in areas under the jurisdiction of PMC. The order has been issued in the wake of the Kamala Mills fire outbreak incident following which the health department chief, city engineer and fire department head have been asked to jointly submit a fire audit of the buildings on January 15 before 1 pm. Kumar further said that any negligence in submission of the report before time will invite strict disciplinary action against the concerned departments. The commissioner has also asked the additional commissioner overseeing the three departments to take a weekly assessment of the work carried out, conduct a meeting with the officer’s in-charge and take an assessment of the work done as per his directives.
The order, in detail, has asked the PMC fire chief to conduct the fire safety audit of all the buildings by appointing special squads to complete the task. The city engineer has been instructed to stop the commercial use of residential premises with immediate effect in all the public meetings under his jurisdiction. The city engineer has been asked to take strict action in connection with illegal constructions. The health department has been ordered to inspect the violations done by hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, restaurants and pubs and find out the illegal activities, including illegal constructions done, and sought a complete stop to their activities. The commissioner has mentioned that these buildings are located in areas which are populated by a large number of citizens and violations by the owners of these buildings can endanger their lives and posed a risk in the future too.
The deputy mayor of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Siddharth Dhende, has trained his guns on the illegal wooden and cloth sheds being constructed without the PMC’s permission in Kondhwa, Kothrud, Baner, Koregaon Park, Mohammadwadi, Wanowrie and Bavdhan suburbs of Pune.
Dhende has written to the Pune municipal commissioner (PMC), Kunal Kumar, pointing out the anomalies and stated that buildings and five-star hotels located in the specified suburbs were violating the building construction by-laws with impunity. He also added that business was flourishing in the illegally constructed sheds and the PMC administration had turned a blind eye towards the serious violations.
Dhende further alleged that a common man, if he wanted to open a hotel, had to face a number of criterion like no-objection certificate (NOC) from fire department, tax NOC and health NOC to get his business running. However, the violators enjoyed immunity from prosecution and action by the concerned officials of the PMC. Dhende also demanded that criminal cases under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) must be lodged against the violators to ensure that they follow the rules for the safety of the citizens.
Pune Cantonment Board issues notices to important hotels
The fire department of Pune Cantonment Board has issued precautionary notices to:
Leather Lounge
Neon Restaurant
Aurora Towers
Snehal Restaurant
Source: PCB fire chief Prakash Hasabe