Though hundreds of fire incidents take place every year in the city, a large number of the buildings, including factories, hospitals, commercial complexes, schools, colleges and coaching centres, still lack fire safety arrangements.
Now, the Municipal Corporation has issued a public notice asking the owners or occupiers of commercial or industrial buildings to obtain a no objection certificate (NOC) by ensuring fire safety arrangements (according to the part 4 of National Building Code of India 2016) in their respective buildings within 30 days after publishing of the public notice, otherwise required action would be taken against the building owner or occupier for violating the rules.
As per the public notice, it is mandatory for the concerned party to obtain no objection certificate from the Municipal Corporation before using the buildings for commercial purposes that also include educational institutes and coaching centres.
The Punjab Government had issued a letter in May 2021 that the coaching centres that violate Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Act can face fines up to Rs 50,000 and sealing of buildings. There are a large number of coaching centres in the city that failed to ensure fire safety arrangements.
In the public notice, MC Commissioner Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal has appealed to the owners and occupiers of all commercial buildings to get fire safety equipment installed and get a no objection certificate from the MC within the given time.
An application to obtain fire NOC or fire safety certificate for buildings under the different usage category, including school, college, commercial, godown, hospital, hotel, industrial, laboratory and nursing home, can be applied online by visiting www.firenoc.lgpunjab.gov.in. The civic body’s Fire Branch officials can be contacted for more information regarding fire NOC.
The MC had prepared a report a few years ago that around 2 per cent of industries, commercial, educational and other institutes running in the city had obtained fire safety certificates. After the plastic manufacturing factory fire and collapse incident in 2017, wherein 16 persons, including nine firefighters, had lost their lives, the MC authorities had then announced to carry out a survey to check fire safety arrangements in the buildings but no such survey has been done to avert fire incidents.
