Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of India agreed to hear a public interest litigation calling for the improvement of the existing state of fire and emergency services in India. The petition was heard by a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Ravindra Bhat, who issued notices to the concerned authorities in this regard. Petitioner Sanjay Garg stated that he approached the apex court because of the laxity with which fire incidents are dealt.
That being said, a survey of government buildings in the national capital has revealed that a majority of these structures do not comply with fire safety guidelines. Some do not even have basic fire safety equipment to deal with or douse a fire. Even more shocking is the fact that these buildings, include about 20 buildings which are part of the ministries of Finance, Home and Defence.
This information was mentioned in a letter to the Public Works Department (PWD). According to inputs, no action has been taken to ensure that these buildings are ready to deal with an incident of fire despite repeated reminders to the PWD. Officials with the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) said that the measures have not been implemented since the buildings are very old and the proposal of making any changes to them faces stiff resistance from the VVIPs who occupy these offices.
Among the buildings mentioned in the letter are North Block, South Block, Niti Aayog and Udyog Bhawan. These buildings are reportedly running without a no-objection certificate (NOC). A staffer with the CPWD, said that fire safety equipment was recently installed at a secretary’s office. However, the equipment was covered with tape later on, which would make it impossible for it to detect smoke in case of a fire.
