The Times of India 12.03.2013
KMC fire guidelines for private market traders
KOLKATA: The KMC brass on Monday held a meeting with shopowners in the city and handed them guidelines for upgrading their fire safety norms.
The civic body's move follows close on the heels of chief minister Mamata Banerjee's meeting on fire safety norms in city markets.
Close on the heels of chief minister Mamata Banerjee's meeting on fire safety rules in city's markets, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation top brass on Monday held a meeting with city's shop owners and handed over them a guideline for upgrading fire safety norms in all city markets.
It has been decided that a special task force - made up of KMC market department officials and police officers - will raid each private market twice every week, once during the day and the other at night. The objective is to check out whether outsiders are taking shelter inside the private markets and whether they are cooking on the premises.
The chief minister had expressed her surprise after the Surya Sen Market blaze took 21 lives - mostly outsiders who had assembled on the mezzanine floor of the four-storeyed building to spend the night. Owners of the private markets will be asked to engage private security guards to keep tabs on fire-safety norms. Activities of these guards will be monitored centrally by KMC market department officials.
Some of the traders' organisations which participated in the meeting include Federation of Traders Organisation (FTO), Federation of Traders' Association (FTA) and traders from Sealdah Koley market. The secretary of FTO, Rabindra Nath Koley, said that it was an uphill task for small traders to pay for modernisation of firefighting systems in private markets unless the KMC provided assistance.
After a week-long survey after the Surya Sen Market inferno, KMC officials have identified 278 markets in seven boroughs of the city which do not have even the basic firefighting measures in place. A team of KMC officials found some well-known and busy KMC markets in a mess in terms of implementation of fire safety measures.
"Some of the major markets such as ultadanga Telengabagan bazar, Sreemani market, Hatibagan market, Allen market, Sealdah Baithakkhana bazar are some of the major private markets visited by the KMC team after Surja Sen market blaze.
"These markets need an overhaul of fire safety measures. The owners will be asked to implement all fire-afety norms in phases. The owners will be asked to install firefighting equipment and train their security guards to handle the gadgets. We will arrange for such a training programme," said Tarak Singh, MMiC (markets). "The visit to the various markets is on and will be completed in a week," Singh added.
A senior market department official said that there are around 700 private markets across the city, apart from 46 municipal markets.
"It is really an uphill task for us to keep a tab on the all private markets. We are trying to zero in on some of the major private markets," said a KMC market department official.
The civic body's move follows close on the heels of chief minister Mamata Banerjee's meeting on fire safety norms in city markets.
Close on the heels of chief minister Mamata Banerjee's meeting on fire safety rules in city's markets, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation top brass on Monday held a meeting with city's shop owners and handed over them a guideline for upgrading fire safety norms in all city markets.
It has been decided that a special task force - made up of KMC market department officials and police officers - will raid each private market twice every week, once during the day and the other at night. The objective is to check out whether outsiders are taking shelter inside the private markets and whether they are cooking on the premises.
The chief minister had expressed her surprise after the Surya Sen Market blaze took 21 lives - mostly outsiders who had assembled on the mezzanine floor of the four-storeyed building to spend the night. Owners of the private markets will be asked to engage private security guards to keep tabs on fire-safety norms. Activities of these guards will be monitored centrally by KMC market department officials.
Some of the traders' organisations which participated in the meeting include Federation of Traders Organisation (FTO), Federation of Traders' Association (FTA) and traders from Sealdah Koley market. The secretary of FTO, Rabindra Nath Koley, said that it was an uphill task for small traders to pay for modernisation of firefighting systems in private markets unless the KMC provided assistance.
After a week-long survey after the Surya Sen Market inferno, KMC officials have identified 278 markets in seven boroughs of the city which do not have even the basic firefighting measures in place. A team of KMC officials found some well-known and busy KMC markets in a mess in terms of implementation of fire safety measures.
"Some of the major markets such as ultadanga Telengabagan bazar, Sreemani market, Hatibagan market, Allen market, Sealdah Baithakkhana bazar are some of the major private markets visited by the KMC team after Surja Sen market blaze.
"These markets need an overhaul of fire safety measures. The owners will be asked to implement all fire-afety norms in phases. The owners will be asked to install firefighting equipment and train their security guards to handle the gadgets. We will arrange for such a training programme," said Tarak Singh, MMiC (markets). "The visit to the various markets is on and will be completed in a week," Singh added.
A senior market department official said that there are around 700 private markets across the city, apart from 46 municipal markets.
"It is really an uphill task for us to keep a tab on the all private markets. We are trying to zero in on some of the major private markets," said a KMC market department official.
