The Hindu        24.09.2014  

GHMC wings at loggerheads as fire mishaps rise in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD:
While the two constituent bodies of the GHMC – the town planning
department and the fire prevention wing are at loggerheads, statistics
show that fire accidents are on the rise with 11 fire mishaps reported
since March.

An eatery was gutted in fire in Punjagutta
recently, but that does not seem to be enough to act as a wakeup call
for the GHMC. “Whenever there is a fire, we hear a lot of hue and cry,
but it dies down soon after. The town planning department of the GHMC is
issuing trade licences without bothering about the mandatory fire
NOCs,” said P Venkatramana, additional director, fire prevention wing of
the GHMC.

When it comes to fire safety in commercial
establishments, authorities seem to be least bothered about possible
mishaps. Statistics show that Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation
(GHMC) issued only 150 no-objection certificates (NOCs), while thousands
of shops were given trade licences since 2010.

The fire
prevention wing carries out inspections to validate building plans and
checks fire prevention norms like escape staircases and water supply
among others. But the trade licence department and the town planning
wing do not seem to care much about fire safety norms. “I had asked the
commissioner Somesh Kumar to integrate services of the town planning
department with the fire prevention wing. So, whenever a builder
approaches the planning department, we can inspect the said building and
give a NOC. But, this plan is still lying in limbo,” he added.

The civic department officials had thought of having an online process
for all departments and a single window system for obtaining trade
licences, fire NOCs etc. This project was given to the Centre for Good
Governance (CGG) for execution. However, officials say that there has
been no progress on this front.

“The GHMC seems to be not keen
in implementation of government policies to tackle fire disasters. Only a
bare minimum of the city’s buildings adhere to the fire prevention
rules but GHMC officials not bothered to make this rule mandatory for
all the high-rise,” quipped another official privately.

The
fire department had asked the GHMC commissioner to recruit at least two
officers for each of the 18 circles in the city. Currently, the fire
prevention wing of the GHMC is manned by only five officials.